Abra still in the dark after typhoon ‘Lawin’

BANGUED, Abra: The province is still veiled in darkness almost a week after Super Typhoon Lawin toppled many electric posts in this province, further adding to the (Abreco) even as it is being hounded by huge debts that ballooned from P300 million to over P500 million in the last three years.

Damage caused by Lawin The Department of Energy to the distribution utility has ( DOE) under the Duterte adreached P60 million. ministration has formed a task

Abreco general manager Loreto force to resolve the debt issues of Seares Jr. said electricity supply ailing electric cooperatives (ECs) might be restored in the capital throughout the country. Bangued today, Wednesday, while While some blamed the current the rest of the province will have Abreco management for its precarito wait for a few more days, as res toration efforts are being doubled. records show that it has incurred

The Abreco management, while debts for a decade already. giving its best efforts to overDocuments obtained from the come the destruction caused by - Lawin, asked for more understandtion (NEA), the National Grid Coring from its more than 30,000 poration of the Philippines (NGCP) consumer-members. and other government agencies

Of late, Abreco has traced its showed that Abreco started bleed ing way back in 2005 with monthly its past management. losses averaging P250,000.

The new management took over in October 2007.

The bulk of the multi-million debts are owed to Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm), which took over from the privatized Napocor with the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

The Psalm board of directors approved the condonation of Abreco’s mini-hydro loan and dendrothermal loan of P24 million and P87.9 million, respectively or a total of over P112 million.

however, only P207.9 million of loans from NEA was recommended for condonation.

Hence, the new administration inherited the P88.9 million that was not condoned, including interest that remains an outstanding obligation of the power cooperative.

Consumers suspected that these multi- million peso loans were “ghost projects” of the cooperative’s past management.

From over P114 million in 2006, Abreco’s debts to Psalm grew to P335 million by 2014 and about P500 million in 2015.

These were considered “power bills” to Napocor incurred from 1997 to 2007.

Government records also showed that the P25 million that Abreco borrowed from the NEA in 2003 grew to P35 million in January 2016 after it stopped paying amortization, including interest and surcharges.

In March 2007 it registered with the Cooperative Development Authority as the old management’s strategy to “escape” from its obligations to NEA.

Abreco suffered power shutdowns in 2012, 2013 and 2014 owing to its accumulated unpaid bills and loan obligations.

The current management has since been at the receiving end of the - ties, also prompting alleged “dirty politics” to come into play.

“We could weather it out if member- consumers band together and understand the root - tions to plug such malpractices in running the cooperative,” a member-consumer said.