Ecija townsfolk suffer from power mess

Pantabangan dam. Photo from upriis.nia.gov.ph

PANTABANGAN, Nueva Ecija—Gasoline stations here have started to prescribe a daily schedule for pumping fuel. Businessmen who could afford the extra expense have secured generators to keep their businesses going.

At Pantabangan East Central School, pupils sweat profusely through classroom lessons because their two ceiling fans do not function.

“When the day turns gloomy due to rains, it gets dark, and my pupils have problems reading the lessons on the blackboard,” said teacher Carol Arellano.

This has been life in Pantabangan since July 22 after First Gen Hydro Power Corp. (FGHPC) stopped servicing the town government-run Pantabangan Municipal Electric Service (Pames), owing to the latter’s failure to pay its restructured loan of more than P80 million.

Residents said the problem was that Mayor Romeo Borja Sr. never explained what happened that led to the power cutoff. So their leaders plan to press the government to solve the problem quickly by mounting protest actions.

“This power cutoff is really a big problem for us. It is paralyzing us and its effects are pulling our town down the sink,” said Bienvenido Reyes, a retired Army colonel who now chairs the protest group La Solidaridad.

La Solidaridad is composed of sectoral representatives who banded together to address the alleged mismanagement of their town.

“Look at this problem that we have now. It is simply a result of financial mismanagement by our town leaders,” Reyes told the Inquirer.

He said he was scheduled to meet Mayor Jerry Pasigian of Alfonso Castañeda town in Nueva Vizcaya, the priests of their town and the Diocese of San Jose to discuss plans for the protest actions. Alfonso Castañeda also sources electricity from Pames.

“The people are paying [their bills], why should they suffer,” Reyes complained.

In a statement, FGHPC, which owns and operates the Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric complex and supplies power to Pames, said it was constrained to cut power supply after Pames failed to settle the more than P80 million it owes the power generating firm. The amount represents the unpaid power bills of Pames since 2008.

It said FGHPC had been supplying power to Pames despite the expiry of the power supply agreement with the distribution firm in December 2008 “primarily out of great concern for the welfare of Pantabangan residents and other Pames consumers.”

“We have been trying to hold off on the decision to cut off power supply to Pames but we cannot afford to delay this action anymore, as we also have a responsibility to keep our operations viable considering that FGHPC also supplies power to two other electric cooperatives, a government agency and an industrial customer,” the FGHPC statement said.

It also said it was exploring options on “how we can assist in providing temporary electric supply to critical institutions, such as public schools in Pantabangan.”

Reyes said the standoff validates complaints they raised in 2010 about the municipal government’s fiscal mismanagement. He said 35 retired Army and police officers have volunteered to help him discuss La Solidaridad’s issues when they tour the villages.

“Now that they are suffering tremendously because of the power cutoff, [people] are beginning to support us in bringing [out] the ills in our town,” he said.

“Our town is rich but the money is being used for something else,” he added.

Citing a 2010 Commission on Audit report, Reyes said the town operated two years ago with a cash flow of P178.053 million from its internal revenue allotment and tax revenues. It spent P151.922 million.

But the report cited nine “misdemeanors” in its spending, including the payment of P51.257 million for salaries of job order workers and consultants, the delay in the remittances of trust liabilities amounting to P88.56 million, and unliquidated cash advances granted to officials without proper justifications.

The report compelled Reyes and his group to request the Office of the Ombudsman to look into the town’s finances. They said they were asking Borja and his son, Vice Mayor Romeo Borja Jr., to account for an P86-million loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines that was secured to finance education and computerization projects.

Antonio Tapia, president of Pantabangan Municipal Employees Union, said that despite their town’s status as a first class municipality, their salaries are often delayed and their mandatory contributions to the Government Service Insurance System, the National Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund), and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. have not been remitted by their municipal government.

At a recent forum, Borja Sr. said, “Let me answer all these complaints and allegations [when these are raised before the] proper bodies.”