City council to summon Cepalco execs over spike in power bills

By LITO RULONA
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents

THE city council on Monday decided to summon executives of the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. (Cepalco) next week to shed light on the spike in the electric bills of residents.

The decision to summon came after Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya delivered a special report complaining about the increases despite the series of blackouts in the city recently.

Taking a cue from Nacaya’s report, Councilor Enrico Salcedo proposed that the city council summon Cepalco executives on Monday“kay kita man tanan naapiktahan sa increase sa singil sa kuryente, kay aron madunggan sa tanan, ug para pud magbaton sa kaulaw ang Cepalco.”

Nacaya said many residents went to him to complain about their electric bills which dramatically increased.

“[We] felt the increase so badly, and it’s hurting the budget, especially, of our poor constituents ,” Nacaya said.

Nacaya said he noted that the increases were reflected in the electric bills covering the period when the city was inconvenienced by a series of power outages.

He said there was a need for Cepalco to justify the increases.

Nacaya said he could not fathom why the charges doubled. One electric bill, he said, reached P14 thousand from  P7 thousand during the previous month.

“For some households, their P1-thousand bill rose to over P2 thousand,” he said.

Nacaya added: “Dili kini matulon og makaon. Naunsa na ang rason? Tinuod gayud diay ang rumors sa social media ug sa katawhan nga kung mag-increase ang Cepalco, mabalik ug masustiner na ang kuryente sa dakbayan ug nahitabo gayud?” Nacaya said.