Cebu Daily News / Visayas

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/visayas/view_article.php?article_id=182559

Coop cuts electricity of City Hall Cebu Daily News Posted date: January 10, 2009 Bacolod City — It's City Hall versus Bacolod's power cooperative. The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) disconnected power to the Bacolod City Hall, new government center, Libertad Market and other government offices Thursday for failing to pay electric bills totaling more than P8 million. In retaliation, the Bacolod city government padlocked the administrative building of Ceneco after revoking its mayor's permit because the power distributor also failed to pay its franchise taxes and real estate property taxes to the city. Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, in a press conference on Friday asked the public to stop paying their bills to Ceneco effective immediately, since the city government has already cancelled the mayor's permit of the power firm. The city failed to pay its electric bills despite the billing notice sent to City Hall on Dec. 19, 2008 and another reminder a few days ago, Ceneco president Vicente Sabornay said. The failure to pay violated a compromise between the city and Ceneco that stated that the city should update the payment of its bills with Ceneco, he said. Sabornay said if Ceneco went bankrupt for subsidizing the unpaid bills of the city amounting to P3 million a month, the National Power Corp. would cut them off and all those in its service area will have no electricity. Bacolod City Legal Officer Allan Zamora said, however, that the power disconnection could be a blessing in disguise because the city government could now insist in being supplied power directly by Napocor. Zamora said Ceneco did not serve the city any notice of disconnection but only sent them a bill, which did not indicate they had only 48 hours to pay before disconnection. He said an official had assured Sabornay that the city would pay its electricity bills yesterday, yet Ceneco still implemented the disconnection. Leonardia called the Ceneco move an “enemy action” against the people of Bacolod. “Their cutting off of electricity was a form of economic sabotage and was done with bad faith because there had been several talks between representatives of Ceneco and the city to find a solution,” he said. The mayor said he suspected that Ceneco was “driven by other motives” or by a "political agenda" to derail his administration. INQUIRER