MANILA - The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Saturday said that due to massive flooding in some areas of its franchise, power was cut-off in some areas to ensure the safety and protection of the residents in the affected places.

Meralco external communication manager Joe Zaldarriaga said these areas include parts of Malabon, Quezon City, Rizal, Marikina , Makati, Las Piñas, Taguig, Manila, Taytay, Cardona, Morong, Cainta and Teresa Rizal.

Meralco said they are continuously monitoring the situation as it assured the public that its primordial concern is the safety of all the residents affected by the massive flooding brought by Tropical Storm Ondoy.

“Power was disconnected in many areas so as to ensure the safety of the public. All our crews are now on alert to make sure that we will be able to respond to any emergency situation.” Zaldarriaga said.

Zaldarriaga added that there were nine substations affected by the flood. He added that as of 4 p.m. today there were fifty circuits that were interrupted within the entire Meralco franchise area to isolate the affected areas.

Meralco said that it may take some time before  power in the affected areas can be restored since facilities must be completely and thoroughly checked.

“We are asking our customers to bear with us since the flooding caused by Ondoy is very severe. We would like to emphasize however that we are on top of the situation," he said.

Zaldarriaga said customers may text  Meralco through telephone number 09175592824 and 09209292824.

“We are giving these numbers in case they will have difficulty getting through our hotline 16211 due to the voluminous number of calls,” he said. (Meralco press release)