CamSur brownouts blamed on mismanagement

IRIGA CITY—For a week now, six towns and a city of the fifth district of Camarines Sur were plunged into darkness not because of a strong typhoon but by the mismanagement of the power cooperative here, two local executives said.

The Camarines Sur III Electric Cooperative (Casureco III) was not running the power cooperative efficiently, the two mayors said when asked about their views on the power crisis.

Baao town Mayor Melquiades Gaite noted that in the list of top 100 delinquents in his town, some consumers were allowed to accumulate more than 20 unpaid electric bills.

Gaite also criticized the Casureco III management for releasing an inaccurate list of delinquents. He said businesses run by members of his family were in the list of delinquents when they have receipts to show that they had paid their electric bills.

Iriga City Mayor Ronald Felix Alfelor, who chaired the Casureco III board of directors from 2008 to 2012, maintained that he tried to reform the power cooperative but was faced with uncooperative personnel.

He cited the case of one consumer who had 115 unpaid electric bills totaling more than P500,000.

Alfelor believed Casureco III must be revamped to dismantle the system that bleeds the power cooperative of the income due it.

He claimed he succeeded in removing only 12 employees who were not remitting their collections and ‘protecting’ some consumers who were not paying their bills.

“There are these employees who keep to themselves the collections while other employees reconnected lines of those they protect,” Alfelor said.

He said he was not successful in getting a P100-Million loan in 2011 from the National Electrification Administration to revamp Casureco III.

Alfelor said Casureco III has total outstanding payables to different companies and institutions of about P700 million, with debt to San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC) standing at

P87 million.

He complained that his family (heirs of the late Rep. Ciriaco Alfelor) was being singled out as top delinquent in the city and still included them in the list of delinquents released to the public even if they had settled their payables last month.

Alfelor said they sold a property to pay their outstanding debt of P3.2 million to Casureco III, after his mother died last month.

SMEC has ordered the cutting of the power supply to Casureco III on Nov. 26, affecting 66,000 consumers, after it failed to pay the current bills.

The continuing blackout in the fifth district of Camarines Sur is hurting entrepreneurs.

Samson Ngo, a hardware store owner in the city, said business was down by about 30 percent while he had to spend twice for power when he uses a generator set.

Shelly Mendez, daughter-in-law of the owner of a restaurant, said more than 20 percent of their daily income was gone while the blackout continues.

Mendez said they could not stock on restaurant supplies because it would be very expensive using a generator set to run freezers. She said they now have to buy their restaurant supply on a daily basis.

The Inquirer tried to get the side of Casureco III but calls to spokesperson Fernando Turiano were not answered.