CEBU CITY – The Visayan Electric Co. (VECO), the largest power distributor in Cebu, is targeting to restore the electricity of 142,000 homes in Metro Cebu by December 31, an official said on Monday.

Regional Development Council (RDC-7) chair Kenneth Cobonpue said based on the VECO’s latest forecast, 30 percent of its coverage area will have their power restored before the year ends.

“Such output in the post-Typhoon Odette power restoration efforts would mean 12,000 additional families every single day in the next five days will finally be able to find consolation once again as power and light returns to their households in time for New Year’s Eve,” Cobonpue told the Philippine News Agency in a Viber message.

Cobonpue said all 474,000 customers under VECO’s coverage area are projected to have their electricity restored by end of January 2022.

As of Sunday, VECO, a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power, has restored 251 of the total 544 power line segments or 46 percent of its franchise area, now providing 69.97-megawatt of daily power to 81,660 households or customers.

“To help alleviate the impact of the recent disaster on consumers and businesses alike, the Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) has directed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and the local power companies to forego disconnection of power supply to delinquent customers affected by the recent typhoon and to instead allow these delinquent customers more time to recover from their current difficult situation,” Cobonpue said.

Amid complaints of slow restoration of power and internet connection in many areas of Metro Cebu, Cobonpue said fixing the lines destroyed by Typhoon Odette “is not a simple task.”

“Unless the naysayers among us have ourselves been able to personally oversee the repair and restoration of 8,990 kilometers of power line cables across the entire island of Cebu (to put things in perspective, the distance from Aparri to Jolo via the Western Nautical Highway is only 2,130 kilometers), perhaps it would be best for us to refrain from thinking so lowly of the tremendous sacrifices and selfless commitment that so many men and women around us in the Public and Private Sectors have given in the past 10 days,” he said.