THE Bacolod City Council approved a resolution requesting the management of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) to explain the increase in charges and rates during the quarantine period.

The resolution was authored by Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr., chairperson of the City Council committee on ways and means.

Gamboa said Republic Act No. 11469 Section 4 (u) of Bayanihan Law or ‘Bayanihan to Heal as One Act’ mandates to provide sufficient supply of power, fuel, energy and water to protect the people from profiteers, cartels, monopolies and other pernicious practices.

“Ceneco should explain to consumers the details on how billings of consumers increased to exorbitant levels,” he said.

He added that Ceneco should also explain why the increase in generation and systems loss charges are equivalent to 0.4155 per kilowatt hour for the April to May billing period.

The City Council earlier approved a resolution expressing strong opposition to the increase of electricity rates of Ceneco and to request the regulatory commission to look into this matter and take the necessary action to stop the same.

The resolution was authored by Councilor Simplicia Distrito, chairperson of the City Council committee on human resource and development.

Distrito said that Ceneco recently announced that they have increased their power rate by P0.53 or from P 10.6608 to P 11.1923 per kilowatt hour (kWh).

“Although Ceneco has its reasons for the increase yet the timing in doing the same is inappropriate considering that all of us are still under crisis brought by the pandemic. Most of us had just returned to work with very unstable income to spare for the increase in power rate,” she said.