‘Don’t fear the Big One’
You better sleep soundly. If it’s your time, it’s your time – Duterte
President Duterte addressed the threat of natural and manmade disasters and encouraged the people to live their lives without fear when the “act of God” comes.
Duterte, during his short trip to quake-hit Ormoc City, Leyte, Thursday afternoon, said Filipinos have already suffered enough in terms of calamities.
The President visited Ormoc City to assess the extent of the quake damage and commiserate with the affected families.
He also noted that everybody has gotten nervous thinking of when and where the next quake would hit.
“There’s always a [fear] – [when the] big bang [‘The Big One’] will happen. Everybody’s expecting it, everybody’s nervous even in Mindanao – Kailan kaya mangyari (when will it happen),” Duterte said.
Duterte was referring to the dreaded 7.2-magnitude earthquake predicted to hit Metro Manila due to movement in the West Valley Fault which is projected to happen every 400 years.
“You know, forget it. You better sleep soundly. If it’s your
time, it’s your time. Wala ka nang magawa diyan (There’s nothing you can do about that),” he said.
Duterte, during the briefing in Ormoc, also said in a jest that the people better pray that the dreaded earthquake won’t hit the Philippines.
“Just pray to God that it will happen in somebody else’s territory, ‘wag sa atin dito sa Pilipinas (not here in the Philippines),” Duterte jested.
“We have suffered enough, actually, in terms of natural and man-made calamities. People are also suffering,” he added.
President Duterte also apologized to residents of quake-hit Leyte province for his late visit, but promised the delivery of swift relief and rehabilitation assistance.
“Our apologies for our physical absence,” Duterte said during a meeting with Cabinet members and local officials in Ormoc City, a week after a powerful earthquake hit the province.
“You know we are also having a serious problem in Mindanao and in the order of priority of things I think we had to focus first our attention on Marawi,” he added.
In his brief message to the quake victims, Duterte assured that the government is doing everything to get things in the affected areas back to normal.
“We are here because we will help you. The government already has a program on how to facilitate the help that will arrive,” Duterte said in Bisaya.
During his visit, Duterte said he is satisfied with how the government agencies are addressing the situation, particularly the rehabilitation of Ormoc and other affected areas. He highlighted the importance of the restoration of energy the soonest time possible.
The President also apologized to the quake victims if it seemed that there was a lack of immediate response as he explained that the government’s attention is focused on the ongoing armed conflict in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.
He also led the ceremonial turnover of financial assistance to the families of those who died in the earthquake.
The City of Ormoc and the Municipality of Kananga in Leyte were placed under a state of calamity following the recent 6.5-magnitude earthquake which hit the province last week.
The earthquake on Thursday destroyed 536 houses and damaged 62 others in 12 mountain barangays. Authorities also reported that at least two died and 41 were injured due to the quake.
Duterte had earlier assured the citizens affected by the quake that the government is doing what it can to address the situation.
While sympathizing with the quake victims, he also said that nobody could have predicted a natural disaster which he preferred to call an “act of God.”
“Actually, to be really very, very frank with you, nobody but nobody can foretell a disaster. That’s why in the insurance business, disasters are called or categorized an ‘act of God’,” Duterte said last week.
“Just for want of any other term to use it, a massive destruction – typhoons and earthquakes. Kaming mga abogado (Us lawyers), we call it an ‘act of God’,” he added.
The President was supposed to visit Leyte last Monday but sent several Cabinet members to meet with the local officials instead. At the time, the government officials were focused on bringing back power and ensuring potable water to the community.
Among the Cabinet members accompanying the President in Leyte were Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenza Education Secretary Leonor Briones, and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
Ormoc City Richard Gomez and wife Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez were also present during the briefing with the President and the Cabinet. Power restored Meanwhile, power was restored in Tacloban and Ormoc cities after the repair of two transformers that were damaged during the July 6 earthquake, a report from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
Edna Legaspina, NGCP Eastern Visayas regional corporate communication and public affairs officer, said the two transformers had a combined capacity of 250 megawatts.
The lights came back in Ormoc at around 8 p.m. Thursday, several hours after President Duterte visited the city, which suffered extensive damage from the magnitude 6.5 quake.
Power was restored in Tacloban at 2:40 a.m. Friday.
Legaspina said four other NGCP transformers in Ormoc were also being fixed. Only after the four other transformers are back on the grid will the power situation in Eastern Visayas normalize, she said.
Legaspina said the deadline for the repairs is July 31.
The power deficiency is costing Eastern Visayas 1105 million in losses per day, according to Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, NDRRMC executive director and administrator of the Office of the Civil Defense.
Jalad, who gave a briefing during the President’s visit to Ormoc, said the losses will reach 12.1 billion in 20 days.
The manufacturing sector will lose 124 million and there could be temporary lay-offs, he said, adding that if power is not fully restored soon, “Eastern Visayas will not sustain its double-digit growth achieved in 2016.”
Christopher Garcia, Institutional Services Department Manager of Leyte II Electric Cooperative (Leyeco II), which distributes electricity to Tacloban and the nearby towns of Babatngon and Palo, said the demand for the entire Eastern Visayas is 210 megawatts.
The region has 11 electric cooperatives, Northern Samar has one, Eastern Samar one, Western Samar two, Leyte five, Southern Leyte one and Biliran one.
The demand for Bohol province is 80 megawatts, Garcia said.
Garcia said Leyeco II, which has a power requirement of 43 megawatts, was only given 20 MWs by NGCP, making it necessary to impose rotational brownouts.
Garcia said the two repaired transformers can only produce a combined 250 MWs. The Eastern Visayas-Bohol areas have a power requirement of 290 MWs.
Garcia said power in Tacloban can only be fully restored if the NGCP transformer in Compostela, Cebu, is running again.
The Compostela transformer can turn out 150 MWs, and together with three transformers can produce 400 MWs, Garcia said.
Even if the Compostela transformer is fully commissioned, it cannot provide the remaining 23 megawatts to Leyeco II, he said.
Garcia said another problem is that the high voltage direct current (HVDC) line that connects Eastern Visayas to Luzon through a submarine cable under the San Bernardino Strait in Northern Samar was also affected by the quake.
Garcia said that with HVDC off line, Leyeco II could not get power from its other suppliers such as San Miguel Energy Corporation and KEPCO Philippines. (With a report from Restituto Cayubit)