A lawmaker has called on the national government to intervene in the raging financial crisis besetting an electric cooperative in Zamboanga City.
Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat said the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) reportedly owes its suppliers some P2 billion, which, he claimed, could lead to the further deterioration of its power service and adversely affect residents and businesses in the area.
The lawmaker asked the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to intervene and look for a company, which can be awarded an investment management contract (IMC) that will ensure the total rehabilitation of the power cooperative.
“I believe NEA should come in already because this will be a long process. NEA should come in and maybe NEA should be the one to handle the bidding process,” he said.
Lobregat said Zamcelco called for a rebidding of the IMC after Meralco-Comstech backed out, citing concerns about a lower system loss cap that will require additional investment. But some observers are claiming the new terms of reference have been watered down.
Lobregat said awarding the IMC to the wrong company will only worsen Zamcelco’s delivery of service.
“What is important to me is that the contract is awarded to a company that has experience in power distribution, and will not treat the process as an experiment to lower or manage the system loss,” he said.
“The qualified bidder should not only have the financial backing, financial expertise, but the technical expertise and track record as well,” he added.
Zamcelco’s debts are expected to balloon further once the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) lowers the system loss cap from 12 percent to 8.3 percent, the cost of which will be passed on to consumers.
According to Lobregat, Zamcelco’s system loss is now at 24 percent and only 12 percent of it can be passed on to the consumers. The rest has to be shouldered by Zamcelco, the reason the cooperative is losing so much money.
The lawmaker added Zamcelco should undertake measures to lower its system loss even before the IMC is set into motion. This, he pointed out, will ensure that it will not incur more losses and accumulate more debts.
“The continued financial decline of Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative is bothersome, and leads to [the] further deterioration of its power service that can lead to outages which will adversely affect its residents and business,” he said.
“Actually, the problem is worsening because the system loss is not going down and not improving. Last month, Zamcelco’s power supply was almost cut off because it couldn’t pay its suppliers in time,” he said.