Rivals of Cabanatuan mayor scored on PPA issue

Are they barking up the wrong tree?

In a statement, Prudencio Magpayo, media consultant of the Cabanatuan Electric Corp. (Celcor), raised this question as he criticized opponents of re-electionist Cabanatuan City Mayor Jay Vergara for raising the purchased power adjustment (PPA) issue to derail his bid for a third consecutive term.

Vergara was a former general manager and major stockholder of Celcor who became Cabanatuan mayor by a landslide vote in the 1998 polls.

As in the past two elections, Magpayo lamented that Vergara’s political rivals have continued to raise the PPA issue against the mayor "despite the fact that he had divested his interests, financial or otherwise, in Celcor and therefore, is no longer connected with the electric distributing utility."

"Granting for the sake of argument that Mayor Vergara is still connected with Celcor, isn’t the anti-Vergara group barking up the wrong tree?" he asked.

Magpayo clarified that PPA collections by Celcor or any electric utility are allowed under Republic Act 7832 series of 1995. Thus, he said the anti-Vergara group should address the issue to the government, not to the mayor.

Vergara’s rivals, he said, have "capitalized" on the nationwide protest against the PPA by "inducing" the Cabanatuan City Consumers Association (CCCA) to lodge a complaint with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Celcor’s alleged unauthorized PPA collections, but to no avail.

According to Magpayo, the ERC, in its reply to the CCCA, explained that the then Energy Regulatory Board (ERB) authorized Celcor to implement its PPA formula.

Besides, he said the ERC is monitoring the company’s PPA formula on a monthly basis "to verify if what (is) charged to customers by the utility is just and proper and to determine the correctness of the computation using the approved formula."

Magpayo added: "If correctly applied or implemented, an order is issued confirming Celcor’s PPA computation, otherwise Celcor is directed to make the necessary adjustments, either to refund the over-recovery to its customers or collect the under-recovery, if any."

Despite this explanation, he said the CCCA staged a protest rally and demanded a refund of PPA payments.

"That Mayor Vergara’s opponents keep on harping on the PPA issue means they could no longer think of any other issues or dirty tactics to thwart his victory in the May polls," he said.