Negros Power’s ambitious bid to replace the island’s aging electric cooperative has met its biggest test yet — and the lights are still out.

Two days after Typhoon Tino plunged Negros into darkness, thousands of consumers remain without electricity, accusing the new power distributor of moving too slowly and lacking urgency in its restoration efforts.

Data obtained by IMT NEWS show that Negros Power has restored power to 38.1 percent of its 250,059 customers as of 7 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6— a pace critics say reveals poor coordination and weak disaster response.

Online, frustration is boiling over.

“Slow pud kaayo mo oi. Why not hire extra manpower to speed up?” one user complained on the firm’s Facebook page.

Another fumed: “We’ve run out of patience — CENECO was faster than this.”

Negros Power’s engineers, however, insisted that they are working around the clock.

At a press briefing, Chief Technical and Operating Officer Engr. Bernard Bailey Del Castillo said a fallen tree hit a sub-transmission line connected to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), triggering the islandwide blackout.

The outage began at 10:30 a.m. on November 4, toppling poles and damaging substations. Crews have been deployed to replace posts and repair three of the eleven affected substations — work Del Castillo said could be completed “within the day.”

He added that power may soon return to the Panaogao and Lopes substations once the main sub-transmission line is restored.

Behind the scenes, however, Negros Power has quietly sought help from Iloilo’s electric cooperatives to hasten repairs, acknowledging that the damage was far more extensive than its manpower and equipment could handle.

Negros was among the hardest-hit provinces as Typhoon Tino barreled across Western Visayas, with several towns placed under Signal No. 4 as powerful winds uprooted trees and snapped distribution lines.

Negros Power, formally the Negros Electric and Power Corporation, operates under Primelectric Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Prime Strategic Holdings, Inc. — the same parent firm behind MORE Power, Iloilo City’s sole distributor which has long sought to take over the Iloilo Electric Cooperatives.
The company serves Central Negros in a joint venture with the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO).

But while Negros Power struggles to reconnect its grid, neighboring cooperatives have bounced back with lightning speed: ILECO I (95.87%), ILECO II (88%), ILECO III (98.5%), AKELCO (92.31%), CAPELCO (79.92%), and GUIMELCO (80%) — all outpacing Negros Power’s sluggish recovery rate.

Now, as the island’s lights flicker back one barangay at a time, Negros Power faces a far bigger challenge: winning back public trust.

Its pledge to deliver “better, faster, and cheaper” service is on trial — and for thousands still living by candlelight, this blackout may have already delivered the verdict.IMT