AP Party List honors ‘Heroes of Odette’
THE AP Party-list has paid tribute to the linemen and electrical engineers whom they dubbed as the “Heroes of Odette” for risking their lives and limbs to repair toppled power lines and transmission towers as they attempt to quickly restore electricity in the areas ravaged by Typhoon Odette.
To honor them, AP Party-list nominees Ronnie Ong and Chris Tio created a tribute video honoring the sacrifices of the linemen, engineers, and other frontline personnel of the Visayan Electric Company (VISELCO) which is the distribution utility of Cebu City and the greater part of Metro Cebu.
Ong said his group also gifted them with assorted baked goodies which they shared with their family for their Christmas “Noche Buena.”
According to Ong, he is both amazed and heartbroken on hearing the story of sacrifice of the linemen and electrical engineers of VISELCO who are still frantically working continuously to bring power back in Metro Cebu.
Knowing that super typhoon Odette would hit Cebu, Ong said VISELCO linemen and engineers have been deployed and were told to hunker down in strategic locations before strong winds and heavy rains started pummeling the island.
As soon as it became physically possible for them to go out, they immediately jumped into action and started reinstalling the damaged power lines even before even going hope to also check on their families.
“These guys also have homes and families that were in Odette’s path but they chose duty first. Many of them lost their homes and their families were also in a dire situation but they chose to serve our people first. In my book, they are heroes. They are the Heroes of Odette,” Ong said.
“That is why we decided to make a tribute just to thank them for their sacrifice. We have also given them assorted baked goodies for their Noche Buena because we know how difficult it is to be in the frontlines,” Ong added.
In its latest bulletin, VISELCO has reported that it was already able to energize 98,321 out of the 474,182 affected customers, and restored 288 or 52.9% out of the 544 power line segments, within its franchise area.
“ Restoration is taking longer in areas where Visayan Electric’s distribution facilities sustained heavy damage such as toppled poles, downed wires, and damaged transformers. Our linemen from Visayan Electric, together with the engineers and crews from various distribution utilities from all over the country, have been working 24 hours a day to clear lines and restore power at the soonest and safest time,” the bulletin said.
Ong said that AP Party-list has been part of the collaboration to create Wings of Hope Ph which has been largely instrumental in facilitating the airlifting and distribution of relief goods to disaster-stricken areas because of Odette.
