Lights at the Makati Central Fire Station on Ayala Avenue Extension in Makati City and many of its substations went out early Friday morning after the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) cut off the power.
The reason: Unpaid electric bills of around P5.4 million which the city fire marshal said had accumulated over a period of three years.
Fire Supt. Ricardo Perdigon said the unpaid bills had been the subject of an investigation initiated by top brass of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP). He maintained that the situation in Makati City was not an isolated case as there are other fire stations in the country facing a similar predicament.
“Makati is one of those on top of the list of cities with unpaid bills according to Director Rolando Bandila, head of the BFP,” Perdigon told the Inquirer.
“We’re still checking the bills as the city fire station is not the only occupant of the building.”
Some rooms in the building house other government offices, like the district offices of the Commission on Elections and the Makati Public Safety Administration, the fire marshal pointed out.
The Meralco electric meter, however, is in the name of the Makati Fire Station. Meralco is the electric power distributor in Metro Manila.
Perdigon said he was summoned by Bandila to explain why the bills had piled up. The official said payment for the bills would have to be settled immediately, he added.
Apart from the central headquarters, eight of the city’s 10 substations have outstanding balances in Meralco, Perdigon said. The remaining two stations have normal electricity service because the barangays within their jurisdiction have paid the monthly bills.
The Makati fire marshall, who has been in his post for only five months, said he found it hard to believe that the station could accumulate the bills in the months that he had become the city’s top firefighter.
“Once the money is released, we will settle the substations’ bills immediately. Meanwhile, we may have to work out a plan for the electricity to be restored at the central fire station,” he said.
Despite the outage, Perdigon said their operations remained normal throughout the city. Firefighters still communicated over their two-way radio system which has enough batteries for it to function well, he said, adding that the phones were also working.