Co-op defies court order to restore Lanao power

DAVAO CITY—A utility firm supplying electricity to Lanao del Sur province continues to defy a court order to restore power in all of the province’s towns, leaving residents of at least 18 of the towns asking in desperation where they can turn to.

Sultan Liwalug B. Dimapunung, head of Alliance of Coalitions Against People’s Poverty, in a statement said the people of the 18 towns, which remain without power, had written Malacañang and other government agencies but their plea appeared to be ignored.

Lawyer Bayan Balt, legal counsel for the 18 towns, said he had sought the help of the Energy Regulatory Commission and Malacañang, and even filed cases so that power could be restored, but nothing happened.

Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Lasureco) has cut power to initially 32 Lanao del Sur towns in May 2013, claiming consumers there had been remiss in payments. Lasureco’s debts have reached P3.2 billion.

Gov. Mamintal Adiong had said the debt was now more than P8 billion.

The mayors of the affected towns denied that consumers were not paying. They said that as mayors, they were the ones collecting payments from consumers. They pointed out that Lasureco installed one meter per town and tasked mayors with collecting payments.

When Lasureco cut off power to the 32 towns over allegations of nonpayment, 27 of the mayors decided to sue through Balt.

The group filed a plunder case against Lasureco manager Ashary Maongco and two officials of the National Electrification Administration at the Ombudsman.

The complaint alleged that P190 million in village electrification funds, P25 million in subsidies and P603 million in consumers’ payments have been misused and not remitted to the Power Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) and National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

The PSALM is the state corporation supervising power plants that used to belong to the National Power Corp.

On June 16, the local court of Marawi City ordered Lasureco to reinstate power to all affected towns.

But Balt said that as of today, only nine towns had been re-energized and Lasureco would not say why it was so.

“And to think that we have complied with every requirement,” he said. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao