The Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative has started Tuesday, September 01, 2020, its massive disconnection of power supply to delinquent member-consumers, as well as those with illegal power connections.
Engineer Joseph Toribio, the head of Consumers Account Division of ZAMCELCO said at least 4 villages were visited by 9 technical teams with pre-identified target areas, to include Barangay Kasanyangan, Talon-Talon, Santa Catalina and Mampang.
In Barangay Kasanyangan, at least 10 delinquent member-consumers were disconnected from the local power grid during the morning’s operation.
This has been suspended since March this year, exactly 6 months ago, due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The technical personnel also found several illegal connections in said village, whose accounts were previously severed due to unpaid power bills.
“El massive disconnection tan-target cila aquel tiene delinquent accounts, quere decir active cila pero largo ya el debe diila, aquel lampas ya na due date, tiene maga 14 months nohay paga, amo se cila ta acava man-disconnect.” Toribio said.
(The massive disconnection is targeted against delinquent accounts, which means, these are consumers who have unpaid bills for several months, some of those even reaching to 14 months, these were disconnected.”
Toribio said ZAMCELCO will strictly implement the 1 month-bill policy, to avoid incurring several months of unpaid power bills, affecting the collection efficiency of the distribution utility.
“Del past administration lenient ba el implementation de disconnection na maga consumers, hinde pa ta corta, ta deja hasta ta queda largo el debe del consumers.” Toribio added.
(In the past administration, they were lenient in the implementation of disconnection to delinquent consumers, until their unpaid bills piled up.”
The new management, under the investor-manager CROWN INVESTMENT HOLDINGS INC. AND DESCO INC, has to intensify the disconnection of delinquent accounts and improve the collection efficiency to be able to settle also their monthly power supply obligations to power generators.
Toribio identified at least six villages in Zamboanga city with the highest numbers of illegal power connections monitored and reported.
These are barangay Santa Catalina, Kasanyangan, Talon-talon, Mampang, Arena Blanco and Rio Hondo.
However, their operation will not only be limited in these villages, but also in other identified areas with reported power pilferage.
He said rampant illegal power connections contributed to system’s loss of ZAMCELCO and creates a ripple effect to the quality of services that the distribution utility could offer to the member-consumers.
He encourages every member-consumer to pay power bills on time, and participate in the campaign against power pilferage, as it will also affect the future of our children and even our local economy.
“si mira-mira tu, ta llama gane quita member-consumer-owner, so as owner debe responsibilidad dituyu, mira tambien tu el dituyu cooperatiba. So debe si tiene maga illegal connections ta hace, avisa tu cay el ta afecta kasi alli el cooperatiba tambien.”
(If you look at it, we call them member-consumer-owner, so as owner they have the responsibility to look after the cooperative. So, if there are illegal connections, they should report it, because it also affects the cooperative itself.)
Toribio said ZAMCELCO also encourages “tipster”, who provides correct and verified information relating to power pilferages. A monetary reward will be given to tipster, whose information provided to the distribution utility has yielded positive results. All these efforts under the new ZAMCELCO are aimed towards improving services to the member-consumers, lessening the unscheduled power interruptions, and provide safe and stable electric power.
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