A relief for Lubao folk: Tiongco irons out gap with power co-op

As Shakespeare said, all’s well that ends well.

Businessman Alfredo Tiongco and officials of an electric cooperative in President Arroyo’s hometown of Lubao in Pampanga have finally ironed out their differences.

Officials of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative II (Pelco II) agreed to credit the businessman’s unpaid electric bills amounting to P3.6 million to the P14 million in rental arrears the electric cooperative owes Tiongco for the use of his 10-megavolt transformer in Barangay San Jose Gumi, Lubao.

"We are giving them reasonable time to pay the rest of the rental arrears," said Oliver Lozano, Tiongco’s legal counsel. "This is now on a lawyer-to-lawyer level of negotiations."

Tiongco, accompanied by Lozano, talked to members of the board of trustees of the electric cooperative Monday night in an hour-long meeting which Lozano described as "cordial and quick."

Earlier, Pelco II officials had served the businessman a notice of disconnection over his unpaid electric bills. An angry Tiongco shut down his transformer, plunging 29 out of 44 Lubao barangays in darkness on the very eve of the 92nd birth anniversary of the late President Diosdado Macapagal.

The businessman has since apologized to President Arroyo for the boo-boo, saying he did not at all know about her late father’s birth anniversary.

The cooperative has been using Tiongco’s transformer since 1999 without paying him a cent, the businessman said, despite an agreement that Pelco II would pay him a "reasonable" rent of P500,000 a month.

Since the electric cooperative owes him P14 million in rental arrears, Tiongco said Pelco II officials could have easily credited this to his electricity bills.

Lozano said Lubao has been far too dependent on his client’s transformer, which provides power to his cement and hollow block factory.

But he said it may no longer be the case soon as a government-funded power substation will soon service the town, thanks to President Arroyo.

"That substation is already there," said Lozano. "Just a little more push and it will soon supply electricity to the whole town."