MC Rural Electric Service Cooperative, Inc. (VRESCO) is set to
collect the back bill of Barangay Guadalupe after it was discovered that the
barangay's hall has not been paying its electric bill since 2005.
Danilo Dumdum, VRESCO operation and maintenance supervisor, firmly stated that, "Mobayad gyud sila sugod sa 2005 hangtud sa date of disconnection."
Discovery
Dumdum
explained that Edwardo Cababa, VRESCO meter reader, found a broken meter on a
VRESCO post together with the meters for the streetlights in Barangay
Guadalupe. Cababa was able to trace the electrical connection to the Guadalupe
Hall but discovered that the meter was not moving.
Dumdum
added that VRESCO San Carlos checked the meter number with the record of street
light meters at the City Engineer's Office but it was not in the list. So on
February 2, VRESCO installed a check meter to determine the amount of
electricity consumption per day and on March 29, VRESCO disconnected the
illegally tapped electricity of the barangay hall.
‘Not me’
However,
Guadalupe Barangay Captain Godofredo Salimbaga defends that when he became the
barangay head in 2006, there was already electricity in the hall and that he
did not think that the barangay was not able to acquire building and electrical
permit. He added that during the term of former Barangay Captain Manuel Leduna
there was connection already.
Salimbaga
and Barangay Councilors Carlos Martin, Romeo Descartin, and Narciso Guisihan
all assumed that the San Carlos Local Government Unit had been paying for the
hall's electricity consumption as they thought that its connection was tapped
to the street lights.
But Dumdum
clarified that this is not the case. Guadalupe Barangay Hall's consumption has
never been accounted for nor paid by the LGU and now the back bill that can
cost roughly P 160,000 to 180,000 will have to be settled first before VRESCO
will approve the application for a legal connection that Salimbaga has recently
filed.