16 March 2007
Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
LEGAZPI CITY—Power supply in the entire Albay province was cut off at 12 noon yesterday by the National Power Corporation (NPC) as the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) failed to pay its debt of P981.3 million.
However, power was restored at 2:30 p.m. after negotiations were made and an initial payment of P5 million was made.
Alex Realoza, Aleco general manager, said they received a disconnection notice from NPC on March 9 but they had requested that the disconnection be deferred while the cooperative worked out a proposal on how it would pay off the debt.
“I’ve talked with NPC’s Vice President for Finance Lorna Dy. She agreed to my request and assured that no disconnection will happen. I even told her if there was a need for me to go to Manila to negotiate but she said no. Now, we were surprised with the sudden disconnection,” Realoza said.
He said he called for an emergency meeting of the Aleco board members immediately after power was cut off to talk of means of restoring power in Albay.
Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez, who was in Manila, met with NPC officials after he was informed of the disconnection.
“We are making arrangements between the NPC and the Aleco so that power can be at least temporarily restored,” Gonzalez said in an interview an hour after the disconnection.
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