• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The disconnection of electricity in five public elementary and high schools in Bacolod City Wednesday could just have been a result of miscommunication between Ceneco, the Department of Education, and City Hall.
This was the explanation of Ceneco acting general manager Arnel Lapore, after five public schools lost their electricity for a few hours Wednesday for failure to pay their bills. However, their electricity was restored on the same day, after he received a call from the lawyer of DepEd.
Lapore said there were accounts that were not processed and paid by DepEd. And since Ceneco is trying to intensify its collection efforts, part of their remedy was to impose disconnections, especially if the bills have accumulated.
But they have addressed the needs of the students by restoring the schools’ electricity first. Then they will be discussing the settlement, he said.
Lapore said he met with the City Administrator, and Councilor Al Victor Espino yesterday to iron things out in order to avoid a similar scenario in the future.
Meanwhile, Espino said he had talked with the legal counsel of DepEd Bacolod Schools Division to determine the problem since this is the first time in the history of Bacolod City that the electricity of public schools was disconnected.*
