Power cut at Fidel V. Ramos ancestral home

Former President Fidel V. Ramos. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ROSALES, Pangasinan, Philippines—For three days now, the ancestral home of former President Fidel V. Ramos and his sister, former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani, in Asingan town has been dark.

Pangasinan Board Member Ranjit Shahani, Shahani’s son, said the local utility, the Pangasinan Electric Cooperative III (Panelco III), disconnected the electricity from the Ramos house after he criticized the utility’s officials for the high power rates imposed in December last year.

“Thirty minutes after I was interviewed [by a local radio station] on Wednesday, [our] electricity went off,” Shahani told the Inquirer by phone on Friday.

Harassment

The board member lives in the Ramos ancestral home in Barangay Poblacion West with his mother, a former senator.

“Clearly, this is harassment,” the young Shahani said.

On Monday last week, Shahani criticized Panelco III’s directors, who showed up at the weekly provincial board session in Lingayen town to explain the December power rate increase that had angered consumers.

The electric cooperative’s rate for residential consumers shot up from P9.80 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to P15.40 per kWh when its power generation cost increased to P5.6384 per kWh.

Not involved

Panelco III serves 10 towns in Shahani’s district and seven towns and Urdaneta City in Pangasinan’s fifth district.

Panelco III manager Hugo Celso Sansano, however, said the firm had nothing to do with the power outage at the Ramos home.

“Their house lost power, but we did not cut if off,” Sansano said on Saturday.

“We don’t know what happened because he (Shahani) did not ask for our help to look at it,” he added.

The provincial board will again tackle the Panelco issue on Jan. 27. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon