BACOLOD CITY – The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) disconnected power to the Bacolod City Hall, new government center, Libertad Market and other government offices Thursday for their failure to pay some P8 million in electric bills.

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 Friday, even asked consumers to stop paying their bills to Ceneco, since the city government had already cancelled the mayor’s permit of the power firm.

The city failed to pay its electric bills despite billing notices sent to city hall on Dec. 19, 2008 and another reminder a few days ago, Ceneco president Vicente Sabornay said.

It violated the compromise agreement between the city and 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. (Napocor) would cut it off and the rest of its service areas.

Allan Zamora, Bacolod City legal officer, however, said the power disconnection could be a blessing in disguise because the city government could now insist on being provided direct power connection from Napocor.

Zamora said Ceneco did not serve the city a notice of disconnection but only sent them a bill, which did not indicate they were given 48 hours to pay.

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.