“Power Advisory,” “New ZAMCELCO Update,” and “Public Advisory.” These are some of ZAMCELCO’s (Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative, Inc.) most popular social media posts, the majority of which are followed with bad news for the consumers.
ZAMCELCO is a well-known entity amongst the locals for all the wrong reasons—fluctuations and power outages—but mind you, this is the electrical power supplier of Zamboanga City. This coop receives more concerns, rants, and complaints than consumers receiving a steady supply of electricity, and unfortunately, this has been a long-running issue. Recently, posts and comments have been plastered all over social media on the unreasonable increase on their electric bills. These posts, more often than not, are prefixed with profanity for every “ZAMCELCO” mentioned. And by all means, the consumers have the right to demand, and ZAMCELCO has the obligation to deliver.
The consumers have been swallowing daily doses of fluctuations and power outages, pills that should not be taken especially in this trying time.
Priorities and concerns should mainly be directed towards our health and safety, and not on busted appliances and risks of a short circuit. These fluctuations and power outages can damage household appliances, burn transformers, and even disrupt businesses. Issues like these are not to be taken lightly, and ZAMCELCO is perfectly aware of this, as it should, considering its job description. Compromising the consumers’ electric supply and jeopardizing their safety are the reality of this coop. Despite ZAMCELCO’s effort to “fix” these issues and write apologetic posts, it is unfortunate that there is little to no improvement at all. Locals suffering from the incompetence of an electrical power supplier amidst a pandemic call for proper management and just compensation.
Coupled with these electrical issues are ZAMCELCO’s “excuses.” A quick browse on their official Facebook page will show you the reasons for the inconveniences they’ve caused.
According to their previous posts, most voltage fluctuations were due to “tripping feeders.” They also mentioned that they are “waiting for the feedback of NGCP/ZACC as to the real cause of the fluctuation.” It seems that the coop itself is not entirely sure of the cause and the appropriate measures to take. And for some reason, ZAMCELCO decided to add that “even our neighboring coop experienced the same,” a piece of information that was unnecessary and irrelevant to the concerns of its consumers. To finish it off, they wrote that “hopefully NGCP/ZACC could give us the result of their investigation on this matter as soonest possible so that member-consumers/owners will not put ZAMCELCO to blame.”
Apparently, ZAMCELCO doesn’t want to take the blame at all since it seems that they are not the ones responsible for these issues. An electrical power supplier refusing to take the blame for voltage fluctuations is quite the irony. The coop should spend their time on taking appropriate measures for these power interruptions, rather than pointing fingers on who is to blame.
As for the financial aspect, one would think that after all the power interruptions, charges on the electric usage should justly be reflected on the electric bill. However, ZAMCELCO thinks otherwise.
Complaints on electric charges have been surfacing on social media. Consumers compare their average past charges to their current one, and it clearly shows the unreasonable increase. A consumer shared that she only pays around P4, 400 but was charged P6, 700, and another claimed that she received a two-month bill over P30, 000 when she usually pays P11, 000 per month. These types of comparisons are all over social media, accompanied with photo evidences of their previous receipts and computations of their average payments. ZAMCELCO replied that they just simply computed the consumers’ electric consumption in the past three months, from February to April.
Strapped for cash, some locals are worried on how to budget the little income and savings they have left, especially the ones who are temporarily out of business and have no source of income due to the quarantine. Electricity is only one of the expenditures. Food and other necessities are also on the list. So the burden of paying a huge sum for electricity is going to be a big problem on top of a bigger problem. This ordeal spells out insensitivity on ZAMCELCO’s part, considering that all of us are struggling to make ends meet. ZAMCELCO is obliged to make just computations that duly reflect the service they provide and any inconvenience they cause.
ZAMCELCO has been nothing but bad news in the past weeks. Consumers are obviously not pleased with the unwanted series of voltage fluctuations, power outages, and increases on electric charges. These issues should be taken care of appropriately with just charges, and pointing fingers on who is to blame is a waste of time and quite embarrassing for ZAMCELCO. The entire situation reeks of incompetence and exposes the lack of transparency on this on-going issue.
