ILOILO City – Illegal connections, tapping, unauthorized load side connections, and substandard wirings lead to overloading and are the primary cause of fire incidents, according to Councilor Sedfrey Cabaluna.
In his privilege speech during the Sangguniang Panlungsod regular session on April 4, he called for cooperation to achieve “zero fire incident that is electrical in nature” by 2024.
Eighty-four of the city’s 180 barangays are fire-prone, data from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)-Iloilo City and MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) showed.
These barangays have 66,835 households and of these, only 33,498 were energized by the city’s former power distributor while 18,661 were energized by MORE Power from 2020 to 2023.
The remaining 14,226 households have no legal power connections, said Cabaluna.
He cited the fire that destroyed the homes of 300 families in barangays West Habog-Habog and San Juan in Molo in January.
He said of the 300, only 114 had legal power connections while 186 were without electric meters.
Connected legally or not, Cabaluna said all are affected or at risk, adding, “Wala man ‘ya gapili ang sunog once mag-ibwal na!”
The 84 fire-prone barangays are in the City Proper (26), 13 each from Jaro and La Paz, 12 from Molo, 10 from Lapuz, six from Mandurriao, and four from Arevalo.
Cabaluna urged barangay officials to “convince our residents to secure legally their electrical connections.”
“We have the commitment of MORE Power, BFP, CDRRMO (City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office), and OBO (Office of the Building Official) to provide all necessary assistance, including staggered payment terms as well as the provision of electrical engineers and licensed electricians to inspect barangays and households upon request,” he said.
“If we can reduce these 14,226 who are still to be legally connected to our electric line before the end of the year, it is possible we can collectively achieve zero fire incident that is electrical in nature by 2024,” said Cabaluna./PN
