Briones: Payment ‘options’ for Visayan Electric consumers

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Briones: Payment ‘options’ for Visayan Electric consumers

Let me get this straight.

The Visayan Electric Company’s guidelines allow a consumer who has received a disconnection notice to give a promissory note or partial payment.

Supposedly.

Then again, we only have Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival’s word for it because the utility provider did not release an official statement on the matter as of press time on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022.

At first, the councilor said that he filed a resolution during the council’s regular session on Wednesday, Dec. 14, urging Visayan Electric to allow these two options. Then he went on to say that company officials agreed to allow these two options during an executive session.

Did he mean company officials were present when he filed the resolution and, right there and then, they agreed to his proposal? If so, why did they not issue an official statement on the matter on Thursday?

Or did he meet with the company officials in a separate session? If so, when did it take place?

Did something get lost in translation?

Because why would the councilor file the resolution on Wednesday if he already knew the utility provider’s guidelines allowed consumers these two options?

Did his resolution then urge the company to implement existing guidelines? If so, how come it was the first time I heard of it?

Mind you, in November, I did not receive my bill from Visayan Electric, which usually arrives on the first or second day of every month. I was aware that I still owed for October so I knew I had to pay at least one month or face disconnection.

The bill never came. To be honest, I completely forgot about it until, that is, I received a frantic call from my helper that “Veco” was at the gate “threatening” to cut off my power if I didn’t pay immediately.

I use the word “threaten” because my helper said the person from the utility firm, or an employee of one of its sub-contractors, had screamed at him and was very rude. Maybe my helper had exaggerated or maybe the other person just had a bad day but, suffice it to say, I was forced to run from the office to Urgello to pay.

I’m still traumatized from living through one month without power after Odette.

Had I known about the promissory note or the partial payment option, my blood pressure wouldn’t have had to go through the roof.

Anyway, I’m still waiting for confirmation from Visayan Electric.

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