They spent Christmas and New Year in Cebu province, away from family and friends, to help Typhoon Odette victims.
They were sad for a while, but knowing that their loved ones were safe as they helped restore electricity was enough satisfaction for the seven-man team of the Iligan Light and Power Incorporated (ILPI).
They arrived to a heroes’ welcome on February 8 and gathered again on February 16 to receive their cash gifts from a group of retired faculty and staff of Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT).
“We were assigned to different areas, then some of us took a rest for a few days when we arrived home. It was a simple token, cash incentives, that we divided among ourselves,” said task force leader Jun Tano in an interview Friday night.
Tano himself obtained his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from MSU-IIT in 1992.
“I was told they were proud that the one who led the team is from MSU-IIT so they gave that simple token,” Tano said.
The day after their arrival, the ILPI management awarded the team members with plaques of appreciation during the virtual celebration of the company’s founding anniversary.
“The ILPI anniversary was actually on February 3 but they waited for us to come home,” Tano said.
On their arrival day, employees lined up inside the company’s compound, waving flaglets of different colors to welcome them home.
Danilo Bagtasos, ILPI’s distribution network operations group manager, said the team volunteered to go to Cebu on Dec. 23, 2021, or a week after “Odette” slammed the province, in response to the request of the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) for assistance.
“This is something to be proud of that during the crisis, the spirit of volunteerism is present. We consider them heroes,” Bagtasos said in another interview.
The original plan to stay in Cebu for 10 days was extended because of the magnitude of the destruction.
“VECO targeted to restore power supply 100 percent by January 31 but because of the huge damage in its service area, only 90 percent of the target was done. When we left Cebu City on February 7, other distribution utilities and electric cooperatives were still there,” Tano said, emphasizing they made sure their missions were accomplished in their areas of assignment before going home.
As of noontime Saturday, VECO reported that 462,694 out of its 474,182 affected customers already have electricity in the franchise areas of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay, and Naga cities and San Fernando, Minglanilla, Consolacion, and Liloan towns.
The Cebu mission was a first for Terence Hale Naive, driver and lineman of the ILPI team. He has been with the company for almost a year but was also with VECO before coming to Iligan.
“It was a great feeling and I felt proud when the residents were thanking us,” Naive said. (PNA)
