By: Tonette Orejas- 07:23 AM May 06,
2019
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga,
Philippines — Customers of Pampanga II Electric Cooperative (Pelco II) were
shocked when they received their bills for April and saw that the cost of their
power use increased by 200 to nearly 1,000 percent.
Tony Cauguiran, leader of Mabalacat
Stop Corruption, on Friday urged Pelco II customers in Mabalacat City and six
towns in Pampanga province, numbering about 65,000, to complain to President
Rodrigo Duterte by texting him on 8888.
That is the number of the Citizens’
Hotline and Complaint Center that the President had set up by executive order
to receive complaints from citizens.
Charging too much
Cauguiran appealed to Pelco II customers
in Porac, Santa Rita, Bacolor, Lubao, Guagua and Sasmuan towns and Mabalacat
City to “unite, sacrifice and spend” P2.50 a call to the center.
Rio Precious Ursal on Friday
complained that her bill for April was P2,842, which she said was an increase
of 271 percent from her March bill of P764.
“Are we consuming too much
electricity or is it you charging us too much?” Ursal asked Pelco II on
Facebook.
Cecille Yumul, a retired
schoolteacher and actress, resorted to humor to cushion the impact of her
bloated bill, saying the increase may have been caused by the shaking of Pelco
II meters in the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Luzon on April 22.
Maria Luisa Carvajal Buenaventura
could not think of anything to explain why her bill, which averaged P60 a month,
shot up to P599.66 in April.
Amador Guevarra, Pelco II general
manager, said the increases were not caused by price adjustments, which the
cooperative had not sought.
He said the increases were due to
higher generation cost resulting from limited reserve on the Luzon grid.
“The price [on] the spot market had
shot up,” Guevarra said, adding that bigger consumption and some technical
problems exacerbated the situation.
Those probably include the arrears
that showed up on some bills when there were none before.
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