Judge inhibits from mayors’ court case vs Lanao del Sur coop over power cut-off

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A Regional Trial Court judge in Marawi City has inhibited herself from hearing the motion to cite in contempt the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Lasureco) – for refusing to restore power in 18 towns of the province, a court source said.

The court source, who requested anonymity for not having been authorized to speak on the issue, said RTC Judge Wenida Papandayan has cited her being related to two of the petitioning mayors.

“I think it was the mayors of Bayang and Tubaran,” the source said.

Bayan Balt, lawyer for the 18 towns where power has yet to be restored amid the June 16 order of Papandayan, confirmed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, that the judge has indeed decided to inhibit herself from further hearing the motion to cite in contempt Lasureco and its manager, Ashary Maongco.

Balt, in a text message to the Inquirer on Wednesday, said he has been formally given a copy of Papandayan’s order on the matter.

He said because of this, the 18 mayors have been at a loss as to how they could get relief from the continued refusal of the electric cooperative to restore power in their towns.

On June 16, Papandayan directed Lasureco to restore power to Lanao del Sur towns, from which it cut power supply amid burgeoning debt in May 2013.

But as of Sunday, only nine of the affected towns have been reconnected, prompting 18 town mayors to ask Papandayan to cite Maongco and Lasureco in contempt.

The Inquirer’s repeated attempts to reach Maongco remained fruitless.

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But in a full-page letter to President Aquino published in the Inquirer on Monday, Laureco officials led by Maongco, said the disconnection of 28 towns – not 32 as provincial officials earlier claimed – was in line with the cooperative’s thrust of “No Pay, No Light Policy.”

“(Twenty-eight) of the municipalities were disconnected because they did not pay their power bills in spite of a memorandum of agreement

entered into by and between the coop and the municipal mayors of Lanao,” the letter said. It added that power has been cut off only to four coastal towns when the lines serving the area was damaged by a sabotage.

Balt maintained that the disconnected towns were not remiss in their obligations and that the culprit was Lasureco’s one meter policy – power consumption in an entire town monitored by one electric meter only.

In the paid advertisement, Lasureco officials admitted the cooperative had installed only one meter per town “based on the MOA” with mayors.

It said individual metering was not practical for an area where only 5 to 10 percent of the residents were paying their bills.

“Lasureco cannot risk the lives of their personnel in disconnecting 90 percent of the members-consumers in a certain locality,” the open letter said.

“If this is what Lasureco did, then where is the P20 Million loaned by Lasureco from the (National Electrification Administration) to be used exclusively for installing individual meters in the province or whereis the P190 Million Barangay Electrification Funds that NEA loaned to Lasureco?” Balt said.

He said with the problem getting complicated, the time has come for the government to intervene in the issue.

“This is the only power crisis happening during this holy month that the government continues to ignore — no reprimand and or no suspension

of Lasureco officials involved in the wrongdoing,” he said.

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