Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc. (Ceneco) acting general manager Arnel Lapore clarified Tuesday, May 28, that the power utility firm will not accept installment or staggered payment of electric bills for the month of May.
“We will only allow one-time payment that we used to, and we will stick to the ‘one bill policy,’” Lapore said.
Lapore also said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has not made any order or policy allowing installment or staggered payment of electric bills for this month.
"If we will allow staggered payment of bills, even just for this month, Ceneco may stop its operation," he added.
Lapore made the clarification after some news came out saying that ERC has approved the proposal of Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (Philreca) that electric cooperatives in Western Visayas will allow staggered payment of bills for May due to a significant increase.
"There was misinterpretation there because there was no issuance or rule whatsoever from ERC about such bill payment method. There are some electric coops in some situations that allow staggered payment, but it's not a rule or policy from ERC," Lapore added.
He explained that Ceneco is paying in advance for the bills to the generators and that for this month of May, they paid P1.2 billion through a loan from a bank because of high sales and that they are dependent on consumers bills payments as power bill collectors only. Besides, he said that no generator would allow electric cooperatives to pay on a staggered basis and that they are paying them in advance.
He said the demand or power usage this month went up because of high temperatures brought on by the El Niño phenomenon and power outages of some generation plants.
"The bill payment does not go to Ceneco; we are only the collector, and we even used some restricted funds to use in advance payments to generators, or else we will go by default," Lapore further explained.
Lapore also said that they are hoping electric bills will go down this month of June as the high heat index is over, and “we are bracing for the rainy season and colder days,” he added.*