Irate customers of the Northern Davao Electric Cooperative (NORDECO) in the Garden City of Samal Island on Wednesday staged a protest march against what they called “poor services and management of the electric cooperative.”
Nordeco serves some 18,000 households and commercial customers in the island.
Island Garden City of Samal Vice Mayor Lemuel Reyes deplored the poor service and high electricity rate being charged by Nordeco.
“We in the city council have passed resolutions. We invited Nordeco to a dialogue, but it results in nothing. There is nothing we can do but to conduct a peaceful rally so that national leaders will do something,” Reyes said.
The electric consumers said they are fed up with frequent power interruptions and an even higher cost of electricity.
Juanita Baclayan said that the electric supply is erratic, “We are shocked when we see our bills which are too high,” Baclayan said.
Baclayan added that it is such a hassle because she has students who need to study at night, “because of the power interruptions, our appliances are damaged,” Baclayan said.
Nordeco officer-in-charge Elvira Alngog said that the power generators on the island are damaged, which forces them to do a two-hour rotational power interruption.
Alngog said that Igacos Light and Power Corporation is supplying them with 6.5 Megawatt of power while their three embedded generators provide 3MW of capacity.
“Other generators are being repaired. But our ultimate solution is to connect Samal to the Mindanao grid,” Alngog said.
Alngog passed the blame to Mindanao Grid Corporation, an Independent Power Producer when their three generators shut down and only one remains operational.
“We are doing our best to provide the best service. Even if Nordeco has no money, we are trying to purchase the submarine cable to answer the clamor to connect to the Mindanao grid,” Alngog said.
In 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed House Bill No. 10554 seeking to expand the franchise area of the Aboitiz-owned Davao Light and Power Company, Inc. (DLPC) to two cities and five municipalities of Davao del Norte which includes the Daneco franchise area.
Marcos said the resulting repeal of Nordeco’s franchise would violate the non-impairment clause under Section 10 of Article III of the 1987 Constitution which states that “No law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be passed.”
“As acknowledged by the bill, Nordeco Inc. has ‘existing power supply agreements with generation companies that are provisionally or finally approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission’ that will necessarily be terminated or impaired upon the resulting repeal of North Davao electric cooperative Inc.’s franchise over the expanded area,” Marcos said. Bobby Lagsa