All 70 barangays in Maasin City energized - Tourism and Investment office says

By BONG PEDALINO, PIA Southern Leyte
December 20, 2011

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte  –  The seventy (70) villages comprising this city were already reached with electricity service provided by the Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative (SOLECO), according to Royeno Segovia, the City Tourism and Investment Officer.

In a brief chat with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) yesterday at his office, which is ideally located just across city hall, Segovia said the electric connections have even penetrated down to the farthest sitio level, or sub-village, giving households there who can afford the opportunity to tap the services of SOLECO.

It was not easy in coming, Segovia reckoned, because SOLECO, despite the city-LGU’s constant prodding, would always consider a return of its investment when extending lines to distant, mountainous areas, requiring at least ten households that would install electricity.

This dilemma was solved when the city government embarked on an intensive acquisition of basic materials like posts and cables, and SOLECO’s role was only to provide the technical manpower to put up these materials, which the utility agreed, Segovia said.

As it turned out, the expected ten units in a service area were exceeded, as more households were inspired by the thought that they can finally avail of SOLECO’s service, lighting their homes at night, he added.

One of the farthest hinterland barangays in the city, barangay Tigbawan, used to operate a generator for their electricity needs, but this was no longer the case, reserving the genset in case of brownouts, which were few and far between, Segovia also said.

Segovia said that as a positive impact of this development, several electronics stores have opened in the city, perhaps these investors were anticipating a huge demand of electronic supplies as a direct result of the 100% electric connectivity of the city’s barangays.