MABALACAT CITY – Amid outrage over meteoric cost of bills for the month of May, the Pampanga Electric Cooperative 2 (Pelco 2) said yesterday aggrieved consumers would not be given moratorium in the deadline for bills payment.
Consumers still face power cutoff beyond payment deadline, amid the possibility of even higher electricity rates in June and July if the dry spell persists.
In a phone interview, Janet Quiazon, head of Pelco 2’s regulatory management, said “we cannot grant moratorium since our suppliers are not granting us (Pelco 2) any moratorium.”
This, as Quiazon insisted that the rise in electricity bills are typical during hot summer seasons due to increased usage of cooling appliances.
She also said that if the dry seasons persists in June and July, consumers should expect higher bill charges. “But it has been raining lately so I hope this would not happen,” she added.
But she urged aggrieved consumers to bring their complaints to Pelco 2 offices.
This, amid growing reports of “incredible” Pelco 2 bills, including that of Lorelaine Batac who posted in her Facebook account photo of her residential bill for last May amounting to P854,809. She said her post was trending on Facebook when personnel allegedly from Pelco 2 arrived to request her to pull out her post.
Others have complained of similar situations, including one whose P1.500 bill in April also skyrocketed to about P85,000 in May.
Quiazon said that on top of increased usage of cooling appliances during hot months, electricity suppliers have also increased rates amounting to about 80 centavos each for power generation and transmission, for a total of P160 per kilowatt per hour.
“These complaints also happened during the summer of 2014,” she recalled.
In Guagua, consumers held a protest rally last Monday afternoon to air their grievances over the Pelco 2 billings for May, with many questioning their bills ballooning by as much as 300 percent.
Quiazon said, however, that her own electric bill increased by as much, but attributed this to her use of air conditioners to beat the heat of summer in her home.
She also said that the reported residential bills skyrocketing to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pesos were “isolated cases” that could be brought to the attention of Pelco 2.
Many consumers are at a loss on whom to air their grievance. “Please help us because our bill shot up from P1.300 in April to P3.200 this May,” noted one consumer, who asked not to named for personal reasons, in a message to this newspaper.
Another consumer, Lhyn Rances, also sought help amid financial difficulties posed by her bill that rose from about P1,500 to over P4,000 for May.
Quiazon also debunked speculations of sabotage in the reading and recording of bills obtained from Pelco 2 power consumption meters which are lumped together on electric posts. She said Pelco 2 has no problem with its personnel.
In the meantime, some consumers have reportedly resorted to loan sharks to be able to pay their Pelco 2 bills before deadline to avoid power cutoff.
“This is especially burdensome at this point, because our children are supposed to be enrolling in schools,” said one consumer whose children go to private schools in Guagua town.
