INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Power outage irks local bets in Benguet town

Northern Luzon Bureau

Delmar Cariño

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Candidates for the May 14 elections in Bokod town were frustrated that their initial campaign salvos were literally blacked out when power supply was cut off from March 28 to April 1 in the town.

Reelectionist Mayor Raymundo Celino (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, Kampi) and Board Member Juan Nazarro Jr. (Lakas-CMD) said planned caucuses and rallies on March 30 and 31, particularly those set at night, had to be cancelled.

"It's very irritating to have a blackout on the first day of the campaign period," Celino said.

Reports from the radio station dzWT in Baguio City said a local candidate was forced to buy a megaphone and batteries so that he could start his campaign.

The Commission on Elections set March 29 as the last day of the filing of candidacies for local positions. The campaign period began on March 30 and will end on May 12.

The Provincial Board here on Monday decided to ask the National Transmission Corp. (Transco), National Power Corp. (NPC), and the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) to explain the power interruption.

Beneco officials, in a letter to the Napocor and Transco, showed that the breakdown of one of Transco's old isolating transformers at Ambuklao in Bokod had caused the power trip.

In the letter, Beneco suggested to Transco that a device, called automation circuit recluser, be installed to protect power distribution from ground faults.

"The automation circuit recluser, which will be installed after the fuse cut-out protecting the isolated transformer, will provide added protection against a power trip," Melchor Licoben, manager of Beneco's energy department, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Nazarro said it was frustrating that power interruption still happened in Bokod despite the two power plants in the town.

The town hosts the decommissioned Ambuklao hydroelectric power plant and the reservoir of the Binga hydroelectric power plant in nearby Itogon town.

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