Zambo mayor to Zamcelco: Shape up, don’t be stumbling
block to city’s progress
By Felipo David G. Malcampo
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Jan. 14 (PIA) –
In her State of the City Address (SOCA) on Monday, Mayor Maria Isabelle G. Climaco-Salazar called the
attention of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco), to “shape up”
and not be a “stumbling block to the city’s progress.”
“To the board or directors and
Management of Zamcelco, the city under my leadership is moving so fast, you
have to shape up because it is your primary obligation not to be a stumbling
block to the city’s progress,” the mayor sternly said.
“We all agree that sufficient power supply is an
indispensable strategy for economic development,” Mayor Climaco-Salazar
emphasized, likewise maintaining that it is a necessity to have stable 24-hours
supply of electricity to ensure the residents’ good quality of life. “Our
current power situation will never improve if we remain idle and not make
things happen.”
She called on the leadership of Zamcelco to be
“accountable” to the member-consumers, “to improve its administrative and
technical capacities to effectively address” the power situation.
Since 2015 and the previous years, Zamcelco has been
heavily lambasted by member-consumers due to the persisting daily rotational
six to eight-hour blackouts in the city. It was only during December 2015 when
the cooperative was able to acquire additional load from the Western Mindanao
Power Corporation (WMPC) through a provisional authority granted by the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) when the power situation normalized with almost
zero blackouts.
Meanwhile, the mayor shared that the local government had
already looked into a long term solution to address any possible power issues
in the future. “Zamboanga will soon be the hub of Southeast Asia’s largest
solar power plant,” she said, sharing that she has already met with Ecoglobal
Inc., an international firm, which will soon invest in a solar plant, and
eventually wind energy in the Zamboanga Ecozone and Freeport Authority. This
project is targeted for completion in March, this year.
