Rama ‘disappointed’ with Visayan Electric’s failure to fully reenergize Cebu City

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama says he is disappointed about Visayan Electric’s failure to keep its commitment to reenergize the whole of Cebu City by the end of January. | screengrab from Mayor Rama’s video

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said that he was very disappointed with Visayan Electric’s failure to reenergize Cebu City on their claimed target on January 31, 2022.

Rama said that he could have understood if the remaining areas in the city still not reenergized were in the mountain barangays because of the distance and the damage in the area.

He understands that the utility may have a harder time conducting restoration in the 28 mountain barangays as compared to the urban barangays.

However, many urban barangays, especially densely populated residential areas have not yet been reenergized causing disruption in the livelihood and education of many Cebu City residents.

“In totality, nindot na ang water. Pagkahuman sa telcos, power man lang gihapon (ang problema). I want to tell VECO, no more excuses. The commitment was very clear, end of January,” said Rama.

(In totality, we already have water. Then the telcos, but then there is still power [the problem]. I want to tell VECO, no more excuses. The commitment was very clear, end of January.)

In fact, the mayor attempted to appeal to Meralco chairman, business mogul Manny V. Pangilinan, in a phone call on Friday morning, for their deployed teams not to leave Cebu yet because of the many areas still not reenergized.

However, the mayor was informed that the teams had to go to Siargao as per schedule because the island also desperately needed help and he understood the necessity in those areas.

With this, the city is left with only the Visayan Electric’s team conducting restorations in the urban and mountain areas of the city.

Rama noted that portions of Barangay Labangon had not seen electric light since the typhoon struck and it was nearly two months since the disaster.

“These are not rich areas, these are poor areas. That really pissed me off. Promises are made to be broken still. The commitment did not get accomplished,” he said.

“Kung wala pay Cotabato Light, wala pay Davao Light, unsaon na lang. I don’t understand why they were not able to make their commitment stand. I am very disapointed,” said Rama.

(If there was no Cotabato Light, there was no Davao Light, what would they have done. I don’t understand why the were not able to make their commitment stand. I am very disappointed.)

The mayor told Visayan Electric to revisit their commitment to their consumers especially to consumers who badly needed them.

His instructions from that start were to focus the reenergization in urban poor areas since richer more developed villages could afford generators.

Yet as of February 4, 2022, there are still many urban poor areas without energy. For the mayor, the numbers or percentage that Visayan Electric has given him may seem high, but the reality on the ground is that many families are still struggling.

The mayor said he would no longer give a target for Visayan Electric because he no longer believed they could reach them anyway.

Instead, he said he would want the utility to keep its promise to deliver light to the residents as soon as possible.

Visayan Electric is set to give its response about the mayor’s statement today.

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