Barangay brass in hot water over Decorp’s transformer
It is payback time for a community that failed to stop a crime in its midst – electricity has not been restored in the area.
Not even an appeal from Councilor Danilo Torio, who appealed in behalf of residents of Sitio Camanggaan, Mayombo who have been without electricity since Typhoon Cosme came and went last month, could save them from their predicament.
The Dagupan Electric Corporation (Decorp) lost one 750 Kilovolt Ampere (KVA) transformer weighing more or less 300 kilos to thieves in the aftermath of the typhoon.
The police later recovered the transformer, evidently forcibly opened and completely emptied of its coil wires, in the premises of one Pedro Rebudal Jr., reportedly a councilman of Barangay Mayombo.
He has been charged for violation of the anti-fencing law.
Augusto Sarmiento, operations manager of Decorp, said on Tuesday that almost all the barangays in Dagupan City are now 99 percent energized except in the island Barangay of Lomboy which has no electricity and in Mayombo where energization reached only 44 percent.
Based on the police report submitted to the city council from the police, Rebudal was identified as the buyer of the transformer. When pressed to identify who sold the transformer to him, he did not know the sellers.
Torio lamented that even the police still could not identify the persons who stole the transformer.
It was only in Mayombo, in the entire city of Dagupan, where Decorp’s transformer was stolen and cannibalized by thieves, said Sarmiento.
Sarmiento said he could not believe that not a single person in the community saw persons detaching the 750 KVA transformer from a fallen electric post even if it was done at night.
He said that the transformer was tightly fastened to the post, adding that it would take two hours to detach it from the post and another one hour to remove its coil wire.
Also, the transformer can only be lifted by a boom truck, said Sarmiento.
Decorp is still awaiting the report of Barangay Captain Ming Guadiz about the theft before it acts to restore power in the area.
Decorp said it would be able to restore electricity in Barangay Lomboy faster than it could in Mayombo.
Decorp earlier appealed to residents to help protect properties of Decorp from thieves to ensure faster restoration of power in their communities. —LM
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