ZAMCELCO: New management, same problems

DESPITE ITS rebranding from “OLD ZAMCELCO” to “New ZAMCELCO,” the same problems continue to hound the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative – from poor customer service to dilapidated electric meters, and the usual voltage fluctuations and power outages, remain the major complaints of the consumers.

Broken and old ZAMCELCO electric meters and a leaning light pole along Don Alfaro Street in Barangay Tetuan and San Jose Road in Barangay San Jose. (Zamboanga Post)  

Many street poles still have old electric meters and worse, a number of these do not have covers or broken and pose grave hazards to the public. Many light poles are also dangerously leaning with television and telecommunication cables hanging like a thick industrial cobweb.

Electric consumers have been complaining about the daily voltage fluctuations, saying not a single day passes without a glitch. And all these problems add up to the stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to the residents. The frequent voltage fluctuations and the surge in electricity had destroyed their appliances.

Since 2019 after Crown Investments Holdings, Inc. and Desco Inc. took over and bailed out the heavily-indebted and poorly-managed ZAMCELCO for P2.5 billion, the problems are still the same and residents continue to suffer as they did the past several decades.

ZAMCELCO has been blaming the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and sometimes the electricity supplier Western Mindanao Power Corporation (WMPC) which is being run by Alto Power Management Corporation.

The ZAMCELCO Customer Service Department is the worst, according to cooperative members, who said that nobody was answering their phone calls. Residents also complained that ZAMCELCO billed them more than what they are supposed to pay. Electric consumers resorted to social media in airing their complaints; many angry over what they claimed were over billing or overcharging imposed by the electric cooperative.

The ZAMCELCO Consumers Complaint Page, a community page on Facebook, was flooded with photos of electric bills showing unreasonable increases in charges. One resident said the local electric cooperative overbilled them not once, but twice after a meter reader deliberately and falsely misread their actual power consumption in December 2020 and January 2021.

One consumer, Jed Amilasan, wrote: “Good evening normal lang po ba na nagfa-fluctuate lagi? Sunod-sunod na araw po kasi nasisira na mga appliances namin. Ano po pwedeng gawin about sa problemang ganito?”

Danval Bernard has posted this on the ZAMCELCO Consumers Complaint Page: “Apaga sindi man gayot todol noche..cuando se para? Lehos pa el pascua..ligar tiempo nuway mas ya kame gamit na casa...hasta bombilya ta rebenta, hende el abaho ha, el na kisame akel ta sindi ta dale claridad.”

Another cooperative member, Romeliza Espinosa Capitanea, complained about a leaning wooden light pole in Doña Felisa Subdivision in Mercedes, but no action had been taken by the ZAMCELCO.

Capitanea said she had been complaining about this since the time of the previous administration. “#Inclinedpost. To the management, I already complained (about) this (problem) 7 years ago. Still NO ACTION was made. Anticipating for your immediate action on this,” she wrote.

Even prayers have no effect on the problems being faced by the ZAMCELCO members. (Zamboanga Post)