AS THEY condemn the alleged arbitrary and unreasonable imposition of additional charges during this coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, various labor and consumer group leaders have urged Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) to refund its member-consumers.
Power Watch Negros Advocates Secretary General Wennie Sancho, in a press conference in Bacolod City Thursday, June 4, said the power distribution utility should refund its thousands of member-consumers once an overcharging on their electric bills is established.
Sancho, also the secretary general of General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), said the cooperative should be the one to initiate a dialogue with the consumers and be able present clearly how they came up with such "sudden increase."
For May alone, Ceneco earlier announced an increase of P0.53 per kilowatt hour (kWh) increase on its residential rate. From P10.6608 per kWh in April, it went up to P11.1923 last month.
"We are giving them [Ceneco] until next week to clarify to the consumers and satisfy our query on this spiking electricity bills which are untimely as workers are still suffering from the impact of Covid-19," he said, adding that "if they fail to do so, we will raise this complaint to the Presidential Complaint Center, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and National Electrification Administration (NEA) or even hold a rally."
Ceneco caters to the largest number of electric consumers in the province including cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.
The cooperative, in an advisory, earlier explained that the increase is attributed to upward movement in the generation, transition and systems loss charges.
These charges comprise the biggest portion of the pass-through charges increased by P0.4850 per kWh. From P7.8359 per kWh in April, it moved up to P8.3209 per kWh this month.
The pass-through charges equivalent to P10.0057 per kWh of the total power rate also includes the ERC-approved adjustments, government subsidies and taxes, the cooperative said.
Only P0.1866 per kWh of the power rate goes to Ceneco through Distribution, Supply and Metering (DSM) charges and Reinvestment Fund for Sustainable Capital Expenditures for its administrative and operational services, it added.
Labor group leaders, however, are not satisfied of the computation made by the utility as they claimed that even their bills have spiked to an "unbelievable" level.
Noel Alisen, union president of Riverside Medical Center-College Division, said the "estimate" made by Ceneco is not the actual reading of the consumers' power consumption.
"The staggered mode of payment implemented by the cooperative during the first few months of the pandemic was just a temporary relief," Alisen said, adding that "it will still be shouldered by the consumers."
The increase is not just, it must be subjected to review, he stressed.
For Ron Hernan Braza, deputy secretary general of Philippine Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (Paciwu), "this is an oppression to the poor."
Paciwu national president Hernane Braza, who showed some of their actual electric bills, also slammed the cooperative for imposing "questionable and unjust" increases.
As the groups welcomed the move of the Bacolod City Council expressing strong opposition to the increase in electricity rate of Ceneco and to request the regulatory commission to look into it and take necessary actions, they are also urging city officials to support their call for a refund.
Sancho said consumers should be refunded by deducting the amount in their succeeding bills. "Please Ceneco, do not misunderstood us. We are just expressing our grievances," he added.
Manifesto
At the sidelines of the conference, the four leaders along with two others from Congress of Independent Organizations (CIO) and National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry (Nacusip) signed a manifesto condemning the "arbitrary and unreasonable" charges imposed by the cooperative.
The manifesto stated that the "sudden increase: in the electric bills came at a time when there were big time rollbacks in the prices of petroleum products.
It said that the Ceneco averred that this accelerated increases is the result of their implementation of the "projected estimate" on the monthly bills because they were not able to conduct an actual meter reading due to the lockdown.
"This irresponsible scheme is highly questionable and this is probably the reason why there was a sudden increase in our electric charges. Instead of clarification, this scheme had brought confusion and stress to the consumers concerned," it added.
The labors leaders, in the manifesto, reiterated their call for refund, suggestion for a dialogue, and plan to file a petition to concerned agencies and offices to address the issue being raised.
SunStar Bacolod tried to reach Ceneco for comment but the latter has yet to reply.