ZAMBOANGA CITY – Public outrage is
building up in Zamboanga City after the local electric cooperative on Wednesday
started billing consumers more than what they are supposed to pay.
ZAMCELCO failed read electric meters and bill its
consumers in March following the government’s imposition of the enhanced
community quarantine due to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Many residents were shocked upon their electric bill
and phone calls to ZAMCELCO were left unanswered and even on its Facebook page,
angry consumers aired their gripes accusing the cooperative of taking advantage
of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sudden hike in electric charges came despite
frequent the daily power outages and voltage fluctuation which ZAMCELCO blames
to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
The public group ZAMCELCO Complaint Page on
Facebook were flooded with complaints and photos of electric bills showing
unreasonable increase in charges.
One resident showed her electric bill amounting to
over P30,000 in just two months and said they only pay a little over P11,000 a
month on the average. “This absurd. This is highway robbery and I don’t know
how you would call it, but this is unbelievable. The ERC should look into this
and investigate ZAMCELCO,” said Maritess Angeles Fernandez, referring to the
Energy Regulatory Commission which has authority over electric cooperatives in
the country.
Another consumer, George Lozada Adion, also
questioned ZAMCELCO’s billing, noting an increase on his electric charges. “Are
you billing us all these blackouts and voltage fluctuations?” he asked.
Lilia Natividad Ignacio said she only pays around
P4,400 a month in electricity, but now ZAMCELCO is charging her P6,700.
Danny Duran has this posted on the
ZAMCELCO Complaint Page: “Dear Zamcelco, You are collecting power bill for the month of March twice. You have already
charged us thru averaging and now you are again charging us the month of March
thru accumulated meter reading from March to April on your billing statement.
Would you please explain how this thing happen? Love, Confused, shocked, and
devastated consumer.”
Like many
others, Duran’s complaint was unanswered too. All these problems added to the
already burdened residents, whose livelihood and jobs were seriously affected
by the health crisis now on its second month. And residents are worried that
ZAMCELCO would cut off their electricity if they fail to pay on time.
But Gannymede Tiu, ZAMCELCO’s general
manager, defended the electric cooperative and said they just computed the
consumers’ electric consumptions the past 3 months – from February to April. “During
the enhanced community quarantine, people are in their house and used more electricity
and so the consumption also increased,” he told the Zamboanga Post newspaper.
Tiu said
those who have complaints on their electric bill can come to the office. “They
can come to our office and we are willing to explain why their billing is high,”
he added.
He said ZAMCELCO will also provide a grace period to electric consumers
so they can pay their overdue bills - provided this falls within the enhanced
community quarantine period - in 4 equal monthly instalments without surcharges.
“As per ERC Advisory dated April 15, all member-consumers are provided a grace
period through deferment of the electricity bill which falls due within the period
of ECQ, without surcharges. The electricity bill shall be amortized in four
equal monthly instalments, payable in the four succeeding billing months
following the end of the ECQ,” Tiu said.
ZAMCELCO
is now under the management
of Crown Investments Holdings, Inc. and Desco Inc. after bailing out the
heavily-indebted and poorly-managed electric cooperative in January 2019.
However, despite the new management, rotational
power outages since last year, continues and forced Mayor Beng Climaco to
intercede and brought the matter not only to the ERC and the Department of Energy, but President Rodrigo
Duterte as well.
Now, Climaco said she asked the City Council for
additional budget to augment the second wave of allocation of relief assistance
- one sack of 25-kilo rice - to all households. And one-time financial
assistance worth P1,000 for their water and electricity bills.
“The proposed budget to augment present allocation
of welfare goods to cover for the second wave of assistance which will provide
this time, all households with 1 sack of rice (25 kilos) and one-time utility
assistance in the amount of P500 for water bills and another P500 for
electricity bills for every residential consumer. This is to ensure the welfare
and well-being of every Zamboangueño family while we remain committed in the
fight against Covid-19,” Climaco, who heads the local task force on Covid-19,
said.
ZAMCELCO could only wait for the construction of
the 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant of Alsons Power Holdings which was originally
set to begin operation in 2016 in the village of Talisayan.
But Alsons failed to start building its facility
and cited many reasons for the long delay – from the failed Moro rebellion here
in 2013 to the P900-million enhancement program it was demanding from ZAMCELCO
as an assurance it could pay them for the stable supply of electricity. Even
today, Alsons has not started construction of its power plant here and
residents want them out of Zamboanga to allow new players to come in. (Zamboanga
Post)
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