Meralco sorry for NAIA-3 ‘accidental’ power outage

By Alena Mae S. Flores

POWER retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) apologized over the weekend for the power outage at the NAIA Terminal 3 due to the accidental fault of its subsidiary Meralco Energy Inc.

“We are issuing this statement to confirm that MServ, in the presence of MIAA personnel, was conducting testing activities of NAIA Terminal 3’s electrical facilities when the brief power outage occurred last Friday,” Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.

He said MServ, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meralco, is doing the activity as part of the comprehensive technical au- dit aimed at improving NAIA Terminal 3’s electrical system following the outage that hit the airport terminal last May 1.

“According to an incident report submitted to airport authorities, an MServ personnel accidentally left grounding conductors attached to electrical equipment during a testing activity, which triggered an electrical fault at 12:50 p.m. that subsequently caused the pow-

By Rio N. Araja

TIAONG in Quezon Province has been declared an insurgency-free municipality.

Local government officials also recently signed a memorandum of understanding declaring the town’s Stable Internal Peace and Security (SIPS) status.

Tiaong Mayor Vincent Arjay Mea led the MOU signing, together with Councilor Eula Lopez who represents Quezon Governor Dr. Helen Tan; Vice Mayor Dick Umali; 201st IB commander Brig. Gen. Erwin Alea; Quezon police director Col. Ledon Monte, 59th IB commander Lt. Col. Ernesto Teneza; and 1st Quezon PMFC commander Major Rodelio Calawit.

The signing of the SIPS MOU highlighted the joint efforts of the military, police, local government units (LGUs), and national government agencies, including civic groups, to finally declare Tiaong an “insurgencyfree” municipality.

In his message, Mea expressed his gratitude to all concerned sectors, especially the military and the police, for working to make his country insurgency-free. Roy

Tomandao

er interruption of NAIA Terminal 3’s facilities on June 9,” Zaldarriaga said. He said the affected facilities were immediately isolated, and power was restored at 1:29 p.m. of the same day. Meralco also dispatched crew on site to assist MServ and MIAA.

Zaldarriaga said part of the incident report submitted were specific recommendations to ensure smoother conduct of succeeding audit and testing activities of NAIA Terminal 3’s facilities.

“These include, among others, the strict implementation of toolbox meeting among MIAA, MServ, and Meralco prior to any activity, and conduct of thorough joint inspection of work area prior to energization of facilities being tested,” he said.

CAGAYAN de Oro City Rep. Rufus

Rodriguez on Sunday urged the government to restart peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army, and their political arm, the National Democratic Front. He made the appeal in reaction to the statement of Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. that he was not in favor of resuming negotiations with the communists.

Rodriguez said it was unfortunate that the defense chief has taken such a personal stand.

“I hope that he reconsiders that position, because this long-running communist insurgency has resulted in the loss of many Filipino lives - communist guerrillas, soldiers and civilians, including children. Just one Filipino the government could save by talking with the communists is worth all the effort,” he said.

If the military’s claim that the communists are dwindling in number were true, the state is morally obliged to get them to talk peace instead of “finishing them off,” as one officer has put it, he noted.

“I am sure that these CPP-NPANDF remnants would want to enjoy life in peace with their families, instead of getting exterminated by the overwhelming military power of the state. They should realize that their dream of more 50 years of taking over the government has remained just that - an impossible dream,” he cited.

He reminded Teodoro that many towns in his home province of Tarlac and neighboring Pampanga were hotbeds of communist insurgency in the past.