NCotabato senior citizens to get discounts on electric bills

Senior citizens from North Cotabato who consume not more than 100 kilowatt hours per month can expect a five-percent cut in their monthly electricity bills this year, the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) said Saturday. The power distributor is now accepting applications for the five percent discount, as mandated by law, in their various offices around North Cotabato, according to Cotelco promotions and membership head Cresmasita Golosino. “This is consistent with the fundamental and paramount objective of promoting the welfare of all persons, including the senior citizens," Golosino said in an interview on Saturday. Cotelco’s move is in compliance with the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 (ESCA, or Republic Act 9994), which grant a five-percent discount on electricity bills to qualified senior citizens whose consumption does not exceed 100 kilowatt hours per month. The Energy Regulatory Commission has also approved the rules for the implementation of the senior citizens discount and subsidy on electricity consumption in December last year. The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, also announced on Friday that it is open to applications from senior citizens for the discount. (See: Meralco all set to give discounts to senior citizens) Subsidy Golosino explained, however, that the amount that Cotelco will lose in providing the senior citizens’ discount will have to be “subsidized" by non-senior citizens. “The cut is directly added to the non-senior citizens. It’s already programmed in our computer," she said. Cotelco’s decision to pass on to other consumers the cost equivalent of the senior citizen discount drew flak from non-senior citizens. A group of Cotelco consumers from Kidapawan City, for example, has called Cotelco’s senior citizen discount as “unjust and deceptive." “It’s passing the bucks to other consumers while they [Cotelco officials] reap the credit as generous donors. It’s onerous, unjust and deceptive," Ruby Padilla-Sison of the Education First, Referendum Later Movement said in a separate interview. Padilla likewise said that the Cotelco should shoulder the discount from its margin of profit and not “extract" the amount from its other consumers.—Malu Cadelina Manar/ACC/JV, GMANews.TV