AMRECO task force assists in restoration of power

By Che Palicte
The Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AMRECO) has organized Task Force Pablo: Tabang Katalagman which tenders calamity assistance to Mindanao electric cooperatives (EC), employees and Typhoon Pablo survivors.
The program is a modern day bayanihan by which volunteers from electric cooperatives render free service to other ECs which need technical help, either in times of calamities for immediate power restoration, construction of additional lines in far-flung least viable barangays/sitios and for the upgrading of dilapidated distribution lines.
Sergio Dagooc, president of AMRECO, said their team is helping the best way it can for power restoration in Pablo-hit areas.
The restoration of electricity throughout the entire province of Davao Oriental poses the most difficult challenge. The four member electric cooperatives of AMRECO were badly hit: (1) Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative Inc. (DANECO), (2) Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative Inc. (DORECO), (3) Surigao del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. (SURSECO 1) and (4) Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. (ASELCO).
The member ECs are working together through different teams with six linemen each headed by a foreman, equipped with service and emergency vehicles, boom trucks, tools and equipment with complete linemen’s gear.
The Task Force has dispatched a workforce and field team from member ECs to rehabilitate backbone lines and restore power soon after the Typhoon Pablo left the country. Dagooc added that they will push for an ordinance that prohibits the planting of trees beside electric lines to avoid damage like what Pablo caused.