Siquijor Island Power Cooperative (SIPCOR) committed to improve the power situation in Siquijor within the week, Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary and incoming officer in charge Sharon Garin said Friday, June 13.
“There was a commitment from SIPCOR themselves that they will fix the gensets (generator sets),” Garin said in a briefing at the DOE office in Taguig City.
Siquijor was earlier placed under a state of calamity due to long hours of power outages.
“At that time, there were five only running out of the nine gensets. For so many reasons. And that is still under evaluation. But what we needed was SIPCOR committed that they fix this within the week,” Garin said.
Garin said two generator sets already arrived in Siquijor.
“We are expecting SIPCOR to have their two gensets arrive. I think one arrived yesterday and another one arrived today. Let’s see if they can connect that already to the system by this weekend,” she said.
Garin assured that government agencies are working together to address the power crisis in the province.
“NEA (National Electrification Administration) is also working on it. All the agencies, all hands are on deck to regularize the situation in Siquijor,” Garin said.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. earlier visited Siquijor to personally assess the situation.
He ordered the deployment of at least two emergency generator sets from Palawan to Siquijor to address the power crisis in the province.
“We’d like to thank also the President for really going there and checking the gensets. And he went all over the compound of SIPCOR and demanded that SIPCOR should deliver what they are supposed to deliver,” Garin said.*PNA