BACOLOD City – A church-based group plans to lead a campaign to suspend the collection of the P0.0817 per-kilowatt-hour additional monthly charge among power consumers.
The Social Action Center (SAC) of the Diocese of Bacolod learned that Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) started collecting the charge in the April billing when the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has yet to resolve a motion against it.
The SAC will gather power consumption advocates, disseminate information on what Ceneco was doing and campaign against the collection until the ERC decides on its motion.
In September last year the ERC approved the joint application of Ceneco and the Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC) for a load factor-based pricing scheme on the monthly reconciliation of the unpaid amount under their supplemental agreement on June 27 that year.
Ceneco may charge its consumer-members the additional monthly fee for 50 months until its P232,010,090 unpaid contract quantity with KSPC is recovered, the ERC said.
But the SAC led by Father Chris Gonzales filed in October a motion for reconsideration against the ERC decision.
In light of this, Ceneco’s Board of Directors asked the management to suspend the collection of the additional charge until the ERC decides on the SAC’s motion.
Ceneco cannot charge the consumers the additional amount just yet, Gonzales said in an SAC meeting at the Bishop’s Palace on Thursday.
In response to a query from Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde, ERC chairwoman and chief executive officer Agnes Devanadera said the power cooperative can carry out the September 2017 ERC decision.
SAC legal counsel Vicente Petierre III showed on Thursday a copy of the letter dated Feb. 12. But he insisted that Devanadera was merely expressing an opinion, not giving an order.
For his part, Lagarde stressed that Ceneco was just obeying the ERC decision, insisting that they were doing what is “legal and right.”/PN
