CALL FOR LINE WORKERS. Sen. Imee Marcos arrives at the Ilocos Norte Capitol on Friday (July 28, 2023). She called on more line workers to help restore power the soonest possible time. (PNA photo by Leilanie G. Adriano)
LAOAG CITY – Sen. Imee R. Marcos on Friday called on more line workers to help expedite power restoration in the province.
Marcos lamented the slow restoration efforts in the province due to limited linemen from the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) while visiting Ilocos Norte Capitol to personally get an update about the extent of damages caused by Super Typhoon Egay.
“The first order of business obviously is to electrify the province. Until today, we are very, very slow. We are going at a small rate of eight percent of the backbone,” she said in a media interview.
The senator said she had already visited INEC and found out that many linemen were laid off by and the management -- which is currently struggling with its finances -- has not trained new ones yet.
As of Friday, 78 of the 559 barangays in the province have restored electricity.
With the help of the National Electrification and Administration (NEA), she reported that the provinces of Tarlac and Pangasinan have committed to sending some of their linemen to speed up the power restoration.
Free charging stations are offered by various local government units from the provincial, municipal and village levels to assist residents, while several generator sets were dispatched to hospitals and evacuation centers as of this posting.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development has delivered to the province of Ilocos Norte a total of 25,000 family food packs to augment those already prepositioned in strategic locations and other relief items donated by the public and private entities.
Gov. Matthew Joseph Manotoc has ordered the immediate dispatch of relief to areas hit hard by the typhoon, including those still flooded and without electricity.
So far, 2,960 food packs were already served to severely affected families throughout the province.
As of Friday afternoon, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported at least three casualties from Pasuquin, Bacarra and Badoc towns where over 6,000 families composed of 21,000 individuals were affected by the typhoon.
A total of 330 houses were partially damaged and seven houses were destroyed.
Partial estimated damage to infrastructure and agriculture have already reached over PPH520 million as of Friday. (PNA)
