Stop the power increase!

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The ill-timed proposal of the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative 1 to charge its consumers an additional P0.7834 per kilowatt-hour starting this month negates the economic stimulus package proposed by Albay Gov. Joey Saceda, specifically the item on discounts on electricity bills.

It was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who gave her nod to a proposal for government to come up with an economic package that would lighten the impact of the US economic slowdown on Filipinos.

However, NORECO 1 consumers based in Bindoy, Negros Oriental, will have to pay more for their electric bills effective January 2008 after the electric cooperative passed on to its consumers the additional charge that the National Transmission Corp. will collect from it.

The additional charge that TRANSCO wants to collect from Noreco1 under the Connection Charges and Residual Sub-Transmission Charges amounts to P2,240,263.28 per month. The electric cooperative said that Noreco1 is only a collector of the charges and will remit the amount to Transco.

But Noreco1, together with other electric cooperatives through the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, allegedly opposed the application for increase of CC and RSTC due to what it called as adverse effects on member-consumers especially in small cooperatives.

We believe electric cooperatives should show compassion to the consumers, who are already saddled with problems due to the increase in prices of basic commodities in the country, and also the spiraling cost of fossil fuels in the international market.

We hope and pray that PHILRECA and TRANSCO will come up with a win-win solution, preceded by a moratorium in the imposition of the additional charges.*