April 21, 2020
The Guimaras Electric
Cooperative (GUIMELCO) launched on Saturday the Pantawid Liwanag Program which
aims to waive power bills of lifeline residential consumers in the Province of
Guimaras.
This program aims to
provide assistance to marginalized sectors in the province amidst the COVID-19
pandemic and in support of the government’s call to provide assistance to the
poor.
This program will cover
lifeline consumers of GUIMELCO whose consumptions will not exceed 25
kilowatt-hours (kWh) for the billing month April 2020.
“This means that our
consumers who have 25kWh or less consumption for the April 2020 reading will no
longer have to pay their bills,” GUIMELCO General Manager Shirley Laurente
said.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo
Nograles said in a IATF conference that electric cooperatives will shoulder the
50kWh consumption of lifeline consumers across the country.
But in the case of
GUIMELCO, only 25kWh consumption is the cap of lifeline consumption set by the
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
“The lifeline cap for
every Electric Cooperative is different and GUIMELCO is only given up to 25kWh
margin for its lifeline consumer,” Laurente added.
The program will start
on April 2020 billing which has a due date in May 2020. Qualified lifeline
consumers will be given a coupon will serve as a basis and proof that they no
longer need to pay their electricity bills.
Laurente also
emphasized that this is only effective on April 2020 billing, thus, any arrears
should still be paid by the lifeline consumers.
The program is also
supported by the National Electrification Administration (NEA), Philippine
Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, Inc. (PHILRECA), National Association
of General Managers of Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (NAGMEC), One EC Network
Foundation, Inc. and Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC).
It has also been noted
that GUIMELCO extended its power bills due date for March 2020 billing in the
last week of April 2020.
“With this simple
effort, we hope that we can mitigate the impact brought by the COVID-19
pandemic in the province in the Spirit of cooperativism,” Laurente said.
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