Pantabangan’s power woes continue due to unpaid bills

Business Mirror

Published on Wednesday, 06 March 2013 18:39

FOR the third time in nine months, power supply to Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija will be cut off. The town is host to one of the biggest dams in the country.

Pantabangan is a first-class municipality and is the only town in the Philippines which boasts of three hydroelectric plants within its jurisdiction. And yet, power supply has been its perennial problem because of non-payment of power dues.

First Gen Hydro Power Corp. (FGHPC), which owns and operates the Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric complex and supplies power to the Pantabangan Municipal Electric Services (Pames) said that by noon on March 7, 2013, it will be cutting off power supply to the electric cooperative owned from by the Pantabangan municipal government in Nueva Ecija.

Dennis Gonzales, FGHPC vice president, said they have been negotiating with Pames since the latter first ran into arrears in 2007, but Pames officials led by Pantabangan Mayor Romeo Borja Sr. have repeatedly breached various restructuring agreements. Hence, they have been forced to cut power supply to the municipality on three separate occasions.

Pames was also disconnected from the FGHPC grid on Feb. 11, 2013 and July 23, 2012.

Pames still owes FGHPC over P52 million of unpaid bills since 2007. The balance includes interest accrued since that year.

This latest disconnection is due to an unpaid January 2013 account amounting to P1,770,662.60, which fell due last Feb. 25.

Under the compromise agreement forged between FGHPC and Pames, the latter committed to strict adherence to the payment due dates, including monthly power bills.   

Pames’s unpaid power bills from July 2012 to December 2012 now amount to P8,762,405.58. Pames has paid only P1.7 million of this amount, with the provincial government of Nueva Ecija paying P3 million to FGHPC through an agreement that offsets the arrears of Pames against FGHPC’s local taxes.

The national government has assured the people of sufficient power supply for the May midterm elections amid outages hounding utilities due to unsettled accounts with suppliers. Local schools are also in the midst of finals exams and preparations for graduation.

“As we have done in the past, we will provide temporary electrical supply to critical institutions, such as the public schools in Pantabangan,” Gonzales said.   source