Salas, Mabalacat mayor iron out conflict over power bills

MABALACAT, Pampanga — This town’s mayor, who heads the province’s mayors’ league, finally agreed yesterday to pay, in installments, his municipality’s unpaid power bills amounting to P7.8 million.

The move of Mayor Marino Morales defused what could have been a standoff between him and former New People’s Army chief Rodolfo Salas, whom the National Electrification Administration (NEA) has tasked to rehabilitate the merged Pampanga Electric Cooperatives (Pelco) 1, 2 and 3.

The other day, Salas ordered power to the municipal building cut off. Morales, however, directed his men to smash the town hall’s power meter, and tap power directly from an electric post.

To defuse tension here, Chief Superintendent Vidal Querol, Central Luzon police director, deployed fully armed members of the Regional Mobile Group to secure the town hall and the local offices and substations of Pelco 2.

Salas said he was compelled to cut off power to the town hall after the municipal government failed to pay its power bills amounting to P7.8 million.

The power cutoff occurred just as Morales was celebrating his birthday with municipal employees. — Ding Cervantes