THE City Government of Bacolod is set to pay P1.5 million to the Central Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) for the one-month electric bill of the 51 elementary public schools in the locality, City Administrator Atty. Pacifico Maghari III said Friday, May 5.
Maghari said he signed the cheque yesterday worth P1.5 million of the city's payment to Ceneco for the month of March.
He said the 51 public elementary schools have a pending electric bill for the month of February and they are still waiting for the billing statement.
On Wednesday, May 3, about 10 public schools in Bacolod City experienced power interruption after Ceneco cut off their power supply for their alleged failure in paying their bills.
Of 10 schools, eight are elementary and two others are high schools.
Maghari said Ceneco already restored the power supply of the 10 public schools.
Councilor Al Victor Espino, chairperson of the City Council committee on education, earlier said it's the obligation of the city government to pay the electric bills of the elementary public schools, while the high schools are paying their bills through their own school maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
"There was only a simple problem, but unfortunately, Ceneco cut off the power supply to the 10 schools," he added.
Atty. Arnel Lapore, acting general manager of Ceneco, also apologized to Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez because it was the first time that it happened in the city.
Lapore admitted that there was miscommunication and miscoordination among the offices concerned.
"I assure the office of the mayor and Espino that this won't happen again unless we exhaust all the avenues of coordination and allowance to give the processing time to complete," Lapore said.
