Masbate power supply shut off

By Celso Amo LEGAZPI CITY --- DMCI Power Corp has cut off power supply to Masbate City Wednesday last week after Masbate Electric Cooperative, Inc.(MASELCO) failed to pay its outstanding power bill amounting to P240M. Nestor P. Dadivas, DMCI Power Corp. president, in a letter to MASELCO manager Eduardo M. Margallo said the power cut-off was due to the inability of power coop to pay at least P143M on Tuesday last week. MASELCO was able to generate only P20M on Tuesday. Dadivas said inability of the power coop to settle its obligation within a week supply of power to the towns of Mobo, Cataingan, Aroroy, Balud and Cawayan will be cut off. MASELCO has P4M outstanding payable for January 2017, P42M for February, P39M for March, P49M for April, as well as total receivables amounting to P273M. “Within the period provided by the supply agreement, the inability of MASELCO to settle its obligations constitutes default while the company has offered a restructuring of the generation payables for January to March 2017 on the premise that MASELCO’s application for a loan with the National Electrification Administration would be approved and part of the loan proceeds would be applied to settle all of the coop’s power supplier,” Dadivas in a letter to Margallo said. “MASELCO’s inability [of] any reasonable and acceptable solution to settle its generation payables to the company has left DMTC in doubt as to whether any further discussion on the restructuring of MASELCO’s payables would be fruitful.” Dadivas notes with grave concern the Board of MASELCO’s issuance of several resolutions approving and directing the release of payments to DMTC to no avail. “The inability of MASELCO to settle its obligations in a timely manner has caused serious detrimental effects to DMTC’s commitment to its creditors and fuel suppliers,” Dadivas added.