ONLY less than two months in office, the administration of Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. was already compelled to adopt belt-tightening measures, specifically on energy consumption.

City Administrator Alvin Fernandez issued a memorandum on Monday directing all offices at the city hall to switch on their air-conditioners only from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 1:00 p.m. to   4:00 p.m. instead of the 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. continuous use.

City Legal Officer George Mejia said the city hall has already exceeded the budget allocated for the year for energy consumption because of the unrestrained and excessive use of the previous city administration.

“Malakas ang konsumo ng koryente (Consumption of electricity is high). In fact, we have already exceeded our allocation for electricity,” said Mejia although he did not cite the relevant figures.

Mejia said the three hours of electric consumption saved daily from Monday to Friday can already result in significant cut in the monthly bill.

Another saving measure adopted by the new administration to save on electricity cost is to delay the switching on of street lights by at least 30 minutes.

MALIMGAS

Fernandez also ordered an investigation into the exceedingly high water bill at the Malimgas Public Market which is not earning enough in stall rentals.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez also indicated that the Malimgas Market is not only posting low revenues but is incurring very high operating costs.

“The funds spent for maintaining the market could be better used for public services,” she said.

The present city administration is also looking into pre-terminating the contract for security services entered into by the past city administration as part of the cost-cutting efforts. –LM

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