LEGAZPI CITY—The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) is poised to cut its power-distribution supply in Albay should the Albay Power Energy Corp. (Apec), owned by San Miguel Corp., fail to settle its P1.8-million obligation.
The power will be cut off on December 22 if the Apec can’t pay its accumulated obligation.
The threat came after Apec failed to pay its debt to NGCP, amounting to P1.8 billion as of August 30, Apec officials hired by SMC said.
Apec is facing a serious collection problem since it acquired the ailing Albay Elecetric Cooperative (Aleco) in January 2014. It inherited Aleco’s P4-billion debt that now ballooned to P5.6 billion, which includes the P1.6 billion in power supply it obtained from the SMC-owned San Miguel Energy Corp., former Apec General Manager Manuel Imperial said early in August. Imperial has been assigned to the SMC main office on September 1.
In a media dialogue on Thursday called by Apec officials, Apec finance officer Miguel Gopengco said NGCP is serious in its threat to disconnect Apec by December because of Apec’s P1.8-billion standing debt since Apec started operations in early 2014.
Apec’s woes began in 2014 after members of the Aleco Employees Organization, who opposed Aleco’s privatization, undermined Apec’s operation by launching a movement targeting only a 30-percent collection and leading a boycott of bills payment.
While the threat of disconnection remains conditional, the Apec officials appealed to the media for help to disseminate to consumers the true status of Apec, saying paying bills is the only solution to settle the debt with NGCP.
On September 4 the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) joined Apec to support the SMC-owned Albay Power Cooperative after more than two years of failed rehabilitation efforts. SMC’s agreement with Meralco was to extend assistance as service provider limited to line rehabilitation, disconnection and detection of thousands of connections deleted from the data base, Imperial said.
He said when Apec took over Aleco in January 2014, its data base only had more than 40,000 of its 220,000 consumers. This was the reason Apec could not send bills to consumers and collect. He said Apec was able to reconcile its data base with 180,000 consumers retrieved and more than 30,000 still remain missing.
During the first year of Apec’s operation, consumers complained of their erroneous and impossibly high billings that one consumer who usually got billed less than P200 a month having only three bulbs at home was billed P30,000. Apec officials apologized to the consumers, saying the problems are being acted on.
Retired National Power Corp. Public Affairs Head Patria Gutierrez, who now serves as Apec spokesman, said Apec management is appealing to consumers who have delinquent accounts to pay. She said Apec is willing to accept payment of their latest bills if they can’t afford to pay back accounts.
Gutierrez warned consumers with disconnected power service against resorting to getting their service restored by former Aleco personnel, saying it’s illegal and they can be charged of power pilferage.
The old Alecohad dismissed from service 70 of its employees in 2013. However, they were able to get a Return To Work Order (RTWO) from the Department of Labor and Employment in February 2014. The employees covered by the RTWO were refused to be reinstated by Apec and continued helping reconnect the power supply of disconnected consumers they claimed were illegally disconnected by Apec.
Asked why Apec would not reinstate the dismissed Aleco workers with RTWO, Gutierrez said the RTWO was for Aleco and not Apec.
Gopengco said SMC had already spent P350 million to rehabilitate Apec.