A GROUP of women in Ganassi, Lanao del Sur, breaks its Ramadan fast in darkness. Like many other towns of the province, Ganassi has been without power since the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative cut off electric supply in May last year. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Seven more mayors of towns in Lanao del Sur have decided to charge top officials of the lone power distributor in the province with plunder as the utility’s debts have ballooned to more than P8 billion and amid its continued refusal to restore electric supply to the towns.
The case was filed against Ashary Maongco, manager of Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Lasureco), for mismanagement of the cooperatives’ funds.
The following mayors filed supplemental affidavits to bolster the case against Maongco—Edna Benito of Balabagan, Nazruddin Maglangit of Kapatagan, Mamintal Razuman of Lumbatan, Macapado Benito Sr. of Calanogas, Mamaulan Molok of Maguing, Mauyag Papandayan Jr. of Tubaran and Hamza Gauraki of Kapai.
The number of complainants against Maongco and National Electrification Administration (NEA) officials Edita Bueno and Digno Tumbokan is now 34.
Lawyer Bayan Balt, counsel for the first batch of 27 mayors who filed the plunder case, said on Wednesday that the seven additional mayors decided to sue Maongco, Bueno and Tumbokan after a Lasureco paid advertisement came out in the
Inquirer on July 7.
In the ad, Balt said the mayors got confirmation that Maongco diverted cooperative funds, which were supposed to be payments for power supply, to the rehabilitation and construction of Lasureco headquarters.
“This fund was worth P384 million, public funds that were realigned by the respondents without congressional fiat or authority in the General Appropriations Act,” said Balt.
In the original complaint filed at the Ombudsman, the initial set of complainants claimed that Maongco and the two NEA officials were involved in “questionable disbursements” of P190 million in barangay (village) electrification funds, P25 million in subsidies and P603 million in payments collected from consumers from 2007-2012.
The P603 million in consumers’ payments were supposed to be for the Power Sector Assets Liabilities and Management (PSALM), which supervises power plants formerly owned by the National Power Corp. (Napocor), and National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), which maintains power transmission lines nationwide.
The Inquirer’s repeated attempts to get Maongco’s side failed.
‘No pay, no light’ policy
In a reprint of his letter to President Aquino in a full-page ad, Lasureco officials led by Maongco said the disconnection of the 28 towns from their power supply was in line with the cooperative’s policy of “no pay, no light.”
The ad came out in the Inquirer on July 7.
The letter said the towns were disconnected from their power supply for failure to pay their bills.
Balt maintained that the disconnected towns were not remiss in their payments. He blamed Lasureco’s policy of installing only one meter per town, instead of one meter per household, for the mess.
Lasureco management’s letter said individual metering was not practical for areas where only 5 to 10 percent of households pay their bills.
“Lasureco cannot risk the lives of their personnel in disconnecting 90 percent of the members consumers in a certain locality,” the letter said.
Balt said Lasureco’s admission, that it installed only one meter per town instead of per household, betrays irregularities in a P20-million loan that Lasureco got from NEA supposedly to install individual meters. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao