Binmaley mayor castigates Cenpelco brass
OVER UNUSUAL HIGH BILLINGS
THE general manager of the Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Cenpelco) is in hot water for allegedly telling off Binmaley Mayor Simplicio Rosario to read his own electric meter in reaction to the mayor’s complaint over his unusually high power bill during the pandemic.
Engr. Rodrigo Corpuz got the ire of Rosario during a meeting of the Liga ng Barangay on Sept. 25 about complaints of barangay officials and the mayor over poor but costly electric service.
Rosario questioned why his electric bill shot up from P11,000 only in January to P14,000 in February, P13,000 in March 2019.
He asked Corpuz why Cenpelco linemen changed his defective electric meter with a meter for commercial use, not for residential.
As arguments went on, Corpuz reportedly told off the mayor to “be the one to do the meter reading himself”.
Rosario was further angered by Corpuz’s denial that he made the remarks, prompting the mayor and his son, Liga ng Barangay president Jonas Rosario, to send Corpuz and his entourage out of the meeting.
Cenpelco Chairman of the Board Modesto Operaña who was present, intervened for cooler heads to prevail and apologized to the mayor for what happened. He vowed to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, the Liga ng Barangay here passed a resolution requiring Cenpelco to waive its franchise rights over all the 33 barangays of Binmaley and allow Dagupan Electric Corp. to operate amidst growing complaints of poor service by the power supplier in this town.
For most of the more than 30 years of operation in the municipality of Binmaley, “Cenpelco was not able to elevate its overall electric service, particularly the per barangay level, to at least a satisfactory level”, the resolution partly read.
It added that this very poor service which all the constituents of Binmaley have been experiencing for years include frequent occurrences of brownouts, mostly unannounced; interruption of barangay fiestas due to overloaded transformers and poor quality of voltage; too much red tape in the processing of service connection; high billing charges, substandard equipment as well as too many leaning and dilapidated electric poles which endanger lives and properties; very poor consumer service and response time to electric-related problems, among others. (PhilStar Wire Service/ECV)
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