NEA extends P51.6-million calamity loans to 6 co-ops hit by ‘Tisoy’

By Lenie Lectura – March 12, 2020
from Business Mirror

THE National Electrification Administration (NEA) released in February this year an additional P51.596 million in calamity loans to six electric cooperatives (ECs) operating in Mimaropa, Bicol and Eastern Visayas regions.

Latest data from the NEA Accounts Management and Guarantee Department (AMGD) showed that the following ECs availed themselves of the calamity loan: Lubang Electric Cooperative Inc., P450,443; Tablas Island Electric Cooperative Inc., P426,936; Ticao Island Electric Cooperative Inc., P5.982 million;  Sorsogon I Electric Cooperative Inc., P18.353 million; Sorsogon II Electric Cooperative, P5.878 million; and Northern Samar Electric Cooperative, Inc., P20.506 million.

NEA said this will help the ECs in the rehabilitation of their power distribution facilities damaged by Typhoon “Tisoy” in December last year.

In January 2020, the NEA extended P31.246 million worth of financial assistance to four ECs in Bicol region and Mimaropa for the rehabilitation of their damaged distribution systems due to the typhoon. These were Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative Inc. Masbate Electric Cooperative Inc., Camarines Sur III Electric Cooperative Inc., and Marinduque Electric Cooperative Inc.

The calamity loan being offered by the NEA has a 10-year repayment term or based on the EC’s remaining franchise life, with a maximum grace period of one year and an interest rate of 3.25 percent per annum.

Typhoon “Tisoy” made landfall in Gubat, Sorsogon, on December 2, 2019. It caused P911.668-million worth of damage and losses to 27 ECs in Luzon and Visayas, according to the NEA Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department. Lenie Lectura