ISLAND DISRUPTION The island town of Rapu-Rapu in Albay province offers a striking view of Mayon Volcano, stunning beaches and a quiet life for its 36,700 residents. But the island now faces a power cut due to the unpaid electric bills of some 1,700 households totaling P32 million. —MARK ALVIC ESPLANA
LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — The island town of Rapu-Rapu in Albay province faces a power cut on May 15 unless it pays at least P15 million of its P32-million outstanding bills to private power distributor Albay Power and Energy Corp. (Apec).
Dennis Ilan, Apec deputy general manager, on Tuesday, asked the National Power Corp. (NPC) in Bicol to cut off power services to the town because their repeated calls to nearly 2,000 consumers to settle their accounts were ignored.
Ilan said the nonpayment of bills by the town’s consumers would have a serious impact on Apec’s ability to pay its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) account with the NPC.
Apec has been remitting P2 million a month to NPC-SPUG for providing diesel-fed power to the island town’s 1,700 consumers and 72 barangay power associations even if the town’s residents had not been paying for their electric consumption, Ilan said.
6-year arrears
Apec spokesperson Pat Gutierrez said on Monday that the island town’s P32-million debt involved unpaid bills since 2014, a year after Apec took over the management of the debt-ridden Albay Electric Cooperative in 2013. Apec also owes NPC-SPUG P32 million, she added.
Rapu-Rapu (population: 36,920), located 34 kilometers, or 18.3 nautical miles, northeast of Legazpi City, is composed of the islands of Rapu-Rapu, where the town center is located, and Batan and Guinanayan.
Rapu-Rapu Mayor Ronald Galicia said by phone on Monday that Apec was partly to be blamed because of its poor collection system in the town, having only three payment centers for residents spread in 34 villages.
Galicia said he had called on residents with outstanding power bills to settle their accounts before Saturday or face the consequence of an island-wide blackout.
He also requested Apec to allow delinquent consumers to pay their unpaid bills on an installment basis.
Gutierrez said Apec got its power supply from San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC) and the wholesale electricity spot market, or WESM.
She said Apec owed SMEC P4.2 billion.
Apec is run by an SMEC subsidiary, San Miguel Corp. Global Holdings, and has 205,000 power subscribers spread in 15 towns and three cities of Albay.
Gutierrez said Apec’s operation had been saddled by unpaid bills from 53,000 consumers, system losses caused by rampant pilferage, and antiquated transmission lines and stations.
She said the firm was losing some P142 million a month due to a 21-percent system loss and nonpayment of bills, while collection efficiency is pegged at only 74 percent.