The Visayan Electric Co. yesterday filed a criminal complaint against the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino for pilferage of electricity worth millions of pesos.
The complaint filed with the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office was based on an inspection conducted by Veco personnel on Feb. 7-17, 2011.
Veco said the five-star hotel deliberately cut and damaged two #10 AWG current wires leading to the hotel’s electric billing meter. This resulted in inaccurate readings of their power consumption and reduced the registration by 66 percent.
Veco sought the payment of P168,699,560.86 for the electricity, representing differential billing for the pilfered electricity consumption from August 2007 until its discovery on February 2011.
Ethel T. Natera, Veco corporate communications manager, said this was the biggest differential billing claim the utility has filed against any of its customers.
Included in the complaint are the hotel’s officers, headed by its president, Kenneth Gatchalian.
In a statement sent to Cebu Daily News, Maebelle G. Varron, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino Inc. marketing communications manager, denied Veco’s charges and said they will wait to receive a copy of the complaint.
“In the meantime, we at Waterfront would like to assure our guests, the Cebuano community and the general public of our continued operations and services and that we will bring these baseless accusations to a proper resolution,” Varron said.
The hotel was accused of violating Republic Act 7832 or the Anti-Electricity and Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Pilferage Act of 1994.
Named respondents were Waterfront Cebu City Hotel Inc., its president Gatchalian, area general management for Visayas and Mindanao Marco Protacio, resident manager Carlo Marcelo Sainz, group chief engineer Ferdinand Vincent Lazaro, chief engineer Loulainetto Lauron and assistant engineer Jose Francis Canizares.
The complaint was filed by Ricardo Lacson, vice president for administration and customer service group of Veco.
Veco lawyer Jesus Anthony Garcia said they have sufficient evidence for their case.
“I guess, right now, they are just claiming to be ignorant (of the accusations). The bottom line is they consumed electricity they did not pay for,” Garcia told reporters.
Garcia said Veco still welcomes the possibility of settling the issues with the hotel management.
Natera, Veco spokesman, said the private utility notified Waterfront about the violation before the complaint was filed but hotel representatives refused to address the issues raised.
“This is so much bigger. A public apology will not absolve you,” Natera said.
If a settlement is reached in the future, Natera said Waterfront should still pay Veco’s claim of P168 million.
She advised other companies not to tamper Veco’s electric facilities.
“We are serious in our campaign against pilferage. Suffice it to say, we are monitoring all our customers,” Natera said.
In response, Varron said the issues raised by Veco against them may have already been submitted for resolution before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
She said a case was filed by Waterfront against Veco last April 2011 and a cease-and-desist order was issued against the power distributor.
Under Republic Act 7832, no one is allowed “to damage or destroy an electric meter, equipment, wire or conduit or allow any of them to be so damaged or destroyed as to interfere with the proper or accurate metering of electric current.”
Violators face a six to 12 year prison term and fine of P10,000 to P20,000 or both.
Last Feb. 7, a routine check by Veco’s Power Metering Department of the hotel’s billing meter showed “zero readings.”
Veco asked Waterfront for a scheduled interruption of its 69 KV substation to check the facilities.
During the inspection, the PMD learned that two wires were “deliberately cut” and the cut edges were wrapped with an electrical tape.
Veco team replaced the cut wires with a new set and installed a wire seal.
When they went back to the hotel on Feb. 17, Veco discovered that the wire was again cut and covered with electrical tape.
Lacson said the wires that were cut off are located inside Waterfront Hotel’s 69kV substation, a secured place in its compound with a fence and a padlock.
Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino is operated by Waterfront Philippines Inc., which is the largest Filipino-owned hotel chain in the country.
It operates five first-class hotel-casino properties located in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Davao. /Ador Vincent Mayol, Patricia Andrea Pateña and Aileen Garcia-Yap