“Aside from its obvious inefficiency in running its systems, consumers have been complaining about some alleged irregularities by Nordeco personnel,” said Amper as he cited a Facebook post which claimed that a Nordeco meter reader misread the meter to reflect a higher consumption which would result in higher collection.
The meter reading, he said, was the latest among the anomalies that Nordeco has committed, pointing out that based on the research of his group, it also showed that among the three electric cooperatives in the Davao Region, it was collecting higher rates compared with the others even when they sourced their inputs from the same suppliers.
Amper said that based on the November 2022 billing cycle, Nordeco residential rate was at P16.9425 per kilowatt-hour, while that of Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative was at P13.9326 and Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative only collected P13.4256.
“It is high time for ERC and other regulating agencies to investigate Nordeco. They must stop Nordeco from mulcting from its unsuspecting customers,” he added.
In this latest seeming irregularity, Amper pointed out that if, using the meter reading discrepancy, a single customer was cheated by about P140 in each billing period, with the cooperative having about 200,000 paying customers, then in a month, the padded bills could reach to about P3 million.
“That is just a conservative computation and that is just one item in its agenda. What other schemes have Nordeco developed to cheat its customers?” he said.
On the Wow Asuncion!PH Facebook page, a certain Jimlornmat Lumaso questioned what he pointed as a dubious meter reading as what was reflected on the actual bill was way above the one reflected on the meter.
“#NORDECO unsa Maning tirada nimo kaning tig reading dri abvance kayo Ka...dagko na gani mog paningil nga walay abiso nga no taas unya Manikas pamo kawat manang tirada nimo (What scheme is this when the one reading (the meter recorded) and advance reading…you even ask for higher rates without informing the consumers, now you will also cheat, your scheme is stealing (from the consumers), Lumaso said.
Lumaso showed a picture of the meter where the actual reading was just 11831, but what as reflected on the bill was that the reading was 11840, which was taken even before the picture of the meter was taken.
Based on both readings, the discrepancy would show that the customer had to pay nine kilowatt-hour more than what he was supposed to pay. Based on the average Nordeco rate, the same customer had to pay P144 higher than what he the bill would have reflected had the reading been regular.
Amper’s group is just one of those calling for government to transfer the franchise area of Nordeco to Davao Light and Power Co., a proposal that gained traction in both Houses of Congress, but met an opposition in Malacanang after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed it.
“We hope President Marcos Jr. will reconsider his position and will not allow politics to ruin our aspiration of having a better and efficient electricity provider in Davao Light. We hope our President will consider our miserable plight as customers,” he said. (PR)
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