SFELAPCO: Consuelo de bobo!

Para sa inyo, mga kabalen!

May installment payment options na hanggang apat na buwan para sa inyong April, May, at June 2023 electric bills.

Magtungo lamang sa aming opisina para sa karagdagdang impormasyon.

ITO ANG inanunsiyo ng SFELAPCO sa kanilang Facebook page nitong Abril 28. Isang hakbangin na gawing magaan ang pagbayad natin ng ating electric bills. O, apat na buwang palugit na ang bigay sa atin, saan ka pa?

Nauna dito ang panawagan naman ng SFELAPCO – sa kanilang Facebook page din at sa mga ipinadalang press releases sa media – para sa mga marginalized users (yaong kulang sa kapasidad na magbayad ng kanilang electric consumption) na mag-avail ng lifeline rates para sa discount o subsidy sa kanilang bayarin, alinsunod sa itinatadhana ng Republic Act 11552 (An Act Extending and Enhancing the Implementation of the Lifeline Rate…).

Pagmamagandang-loob at pagmamalasakit sa kapakanan ng kanilang mga consumers, ito baga ang mabuting adhika ng SFELAPCO sa mga nasabing pahayag.

Cuidao ka, Fernandino, ang mga ito ay pa-consuelo de bobo lamang ng SFELAPCO. Malas lang ng SFELAPCO, hindi tayo bobo.

Ang tunay at tanging layon nila ay ilihis ang kaisipan natin sa mga kabulastugan at kalabisan ng kumpanya na nagpahirap – at nagpapahirap pa rin – sa atin sa mahabang panahon at naungkat lamang matapos idulog ni Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag ang ating mga karaingan sa Energy Regulatory Commission.

Sa paglihis ng ating mga kaisipan sa tunay na isyu, maaaring maibsan ang nagpupuyos na damdamin ng madlang Fernandino laban sa SFELAPCO. At tanggapin na lang natin na kanila pa rin ang huling baraha.

Ang sukatan ng katapatan ng SFELAPCO sa pagmamalasakit at pagtulong sa kanilang mga consumers ay wala sa utay-utay na paraan ng pagbayad sa ating mga electric bills. Maihahantulad ito sa reprieve na ibinibigay sa nasa death row, ng pagpapalawig pa ng ilang panahon sa mundo pero bitay pa rin ang katapusan.

Unang-una, hindi makatuwiran o makatarungan ang sinisingil sa atin ng SFELAPCO. At kailan pa man ay hindi ito maitutuwid ng pagbabayad ng hulugan. Sa gawing ito, walang pinag-iba ang SFELAPCO sa Bumbay na naniningil ng hulugan sa 5-6 na pinautang.

O, mabuti pa nga ang Bumbay dahil sa may pinapalabas na pera sa pagpapautang. Ang SFELAPCO puro kabig lamang: tayo ay kaniyang iginigisa sa sarili nating mantika.

Sa kanila na rin lang nanggaling, ibalik natin sa SFELAPCO ang pamamamaraang hulugan sa pagbayad ng utang. Higit na akma ito sa “P654,397,381.00 unauthorized charges” na siningil sa atin mula January 2013 hanggang December 2022 at pinapa-refund o pinababalik sa mga consumers sa utos na rin ng ERC.

Maiaakma rin ang hulugang bayaran sa P21.6 million penalty na ipinataw ng ERC sa SFELAPCO sa mga paglabag nito sa sa mga alituntunin kaugnay ng “invalid charges including [Aboitiz Power Renewables Inc.] line rental charges, site-specific loss adjustment, wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) net settlement surplus, and WESM charges.”

Ibalik sa consumer ang P654 million. Bayaran ang P21 million penalty sa ERC. Ito ang marapat na utay-utayin ng SFELAPCO, sakali mang wala itong kapasidad sa ngayon na bayaran ito ng buo.    

Muli, hindi bobo ang Fernandino, SFELAPCO. Hindi ito magpapaloloko sa anumang pakulo, lalo't palsipikadong pakunsuwelo lang ito.

 

 

 

 

SFELAPCO cheats

IN THE heat of the consumers’ revolt over the projected spike in generation charges, I have kept the coolness of journalistic objectivity and fairness vis-a-vis SFELAPCO.

Unmoved even a bit by the passion of the moment, of the uproar of the masses – most manifest in the honorable Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag – even as both fused into a maelstrom of disgust, detestation, and denunciation of SFELAPCO.

Notwithstanding the adverse decisions and sanctions the Energy Regulatory Commission imposed upon the company – to a considerable extent effected by the efforts of Mayor Vilma – I stayed convinced that SFELAPCO was a victim too, just as the consumers it serves. Especially given those 10 long years that the ERC slept soundly on its petition for renewal of its power supply agreement.

And remained undoubting too in the truth of SFELAPCO’s rates far below those of the power cooperatives here even as its service is far high up in efficiency, in superiority. For I am most willing to pay the price for efficiency leading to personal comfort and convenience.  

Why, only last week, I happily heralded in Punto! SFELAPCO general manager Babes Lazatin’s announcement of four power firms joining the pre-qualification conference in the distributor’s bid to find affordable and stable electricity supply for its consumers. Swell.

Today, April 19, I can only look at SFELAPCO as a cheat. This, as I join the collective cry here in St. Jude Village over the spike in our power bills.

Still, I won’t fall for the canard passed around my community that SFELAPCO wanted its consumers to defray the expenses incurred in the miserably failed bid of a Lazatin scion for the city mayoralty. That is as much folly as falsity. 

I’d rather go by reason and hard facts to prove a point.

From the previous months’ P5,000 to P6,000-plus, the bill served us today stands at P8,364.01.

It is not the increase of P2,364 per se that made the blood boil. It is its irrationality.

 

Since September last year, we have in place a 5-kw solar energy system in the house. Yes, I have long forgiven SFELAPCO for taking all of five months before installing a REK meter – only last February, and for as long forgotten how much we could have saved, were it installed sooner.

 

For March 2023, our solar generation yield totaled 266kwh. Reflected in the current bill is a measly 14kwh. The scope and scale of cheating here is unconscionably humongous. Talk of power theft, this time not by your usual suspected jumper but by the distributor itself. 

And SFELAPCO even had the gall of stapling in our latest bill a “48-HOUR DISCONNECTION NOTICE” over "outstanding arrears" of P33.54! Yes, thirty-three pesos and fifty-four centavos! Seriously?

 

The wife pays SFELAPCO online – on time – based on the amount in the billing she receives by SMS. Now, we are being penalized for possible glitches in their system!

Hard-earned pesos by the thousands, we contribute to SFELAPCO’s coffers monthly, religiously, unquestioningly. Only to be slapped with a stern warning of power cutoff for allegedly defaulting over a highly questionable, ridiculous P33.54!

Devoid of an iota of corporate conscience, SFELAPCO is reduced to a scheming shyster.

Today, I join the battle.           

Tubong Lugaw

 

YOU’RE CORDIALLY INVITED

Dine with the President of Clark Development Corporation, Atty. Agnes VST Devanadera, as she celebrates her first birthday in Clark in a meaningful way! 

IT COULD – as it should – have been the grandest birthday bash ever at the Clark Freeport. Had the conviviality, aye, the cordiality did not end right there. And with it, whatever well-meaning the invitation carried utterly lost along the way.

LUGAW FOR A CAUSE

So, it said. But what specific advocacy Madame Devanadera’s birthday was intended for, alas, did not merit the least mention in the printed invitation. Absent the cause, present the cost: Admit One/PHP5,000 on a perforated stub attached to the invite.  

Easily – as the dear lamented Gov. Bren Z. Guiao was wont to say – the priciest rice porridge ever!

“I thought we were being offered a franchise for Lugaw Republic,” said an aghast locator, referencing the successful ascent in the business hierarchy of the lowly food carts serving what has come to be hyped as “Ang Pambansang Lugaw.” His company received 10 tickets – “good as sold.”

Mistaking it as an adjunct of Lugaw ni Leni – the supplementary feeding program for the hungry initiated by the beloved former vice president – an unrepentant “Pinklawan” locator welcomed the “substantial number” of invitations that went his way, only to wail in lamentation later.   

Another did indeed think the event was to raise funds for a feeding program for the indigenous kids in the communities contiguous to the freeport and “paid for a number of invites with all the goodness in my heart.” 

On the other hand, there was only bitterness at the very core of the corporate being of at least two managerial level executives. (No names here in deference to the request of my sources for complete anonymity, lest they be exposed to reprisals. Their word, not mine.)

Given the uncertainties that the implementing rules and regulations of the CREATE Law and certain BIR issuances impacted upon their companies, Devanadera’s Lugaw for a Cause was likened to “death row’s last meal” – paid for by the state and on request of the prisoner before his execution.

“On second thought, much worse, as we even paid for it,” one quipped.

To the beleaguered members of the Association of Concerned CDC Employees, Devanadera’s birthday bash was the “height of insensitivity adding insult to injury” in their struggle to regain what is “justly ours unjustly taken away by agents of the state.”

“If she really wanted a meaningful way to celebrate her first birthday as president of CDC, she could have taken our cause as her own, truly befitting of a caring, compassionate leader,” said a unionist.  

Aye, the struggle continues, comrade.

Incidentally, did Lugaw for a Cause have a permit from the Department of Social Welfare and Development? I did not see in the invite the usual DSWD Special Permit XXXX imprinted on fund-raising tickets of old.

Isn’t there some violation here?

Expressly cited by DSWD Circular NO. 05 S-2021 – Guidelines in the Processing of Regional and National Solicitation Permits is EO No. 292 (The Administrative Code of 1987) 3.2 Title XVI, Chapter 9 (Fund Drive), Section No. 20 that states any person, corporation, organization or association desiring to solicit or receive contributions for charitable or public welfare purposes shall first secure a permit from the Regional Offices of the Department.

Still and all, here is one uninvited wishing you a belated happy birthday, Madame.

 

Memory box

Dusted off a box,

faded memories

come back – unfrozen

in the present fresh

as that moment

long time past.

Of a grade of 99 –                           

aye, some benchmark

turned urban legend

utterly unremembered.

Exceptional in the word

and the world, 

the track to life

well worth.

Least in conduct –

Melchizedek’s door

slammed shut.

Vocation ended

as it began –

alas, the highest honors

for naught.

Still, gratefully

in debt.

Mater Boni Consilii, ora pro nobis.                   

Paralaya: A communion with the Kapampangan soul

 

FOREMOST KAPAMPANGAN artist Andy Alviz won the Best Original Theme Song at the recent Summer Metro Manila Film Festival for his composition Paralaya of the movie Apag. 

Paralaya (towards Arayat, in Kapampangan) is the cover of an acoustic album produced by Alviz with his ArtiSta. Rita in 2007. In celebration of his triumph -- and the Kapampangan too -- I am re-sharing here this piece published in a Punto issue nearly 16 years ago.  

THEIR MUSIC seared the psyche of a race long in search of its forgotten greatness: its culture maculated by the infusion of alien influences, its virtues devalued by the immoralities of flawed saviors, its very existence imperiled by nature’s rage.

That was ArtiSta.Rita, composed of home-grown talents shepherded by a Kapampangan returnee from London’s West End, when it exploded into the local scene a few years back with its maiden album. Kapampangan Ku, the title song, defined the very identity of the race and inspired a celebration of everything Kapampangan, from the cultural to the culinary, from the historical to the mythical.
It did not come as any surprise then that in this May’s elections (2007), it was Kapampangan Ku that likewise defined the very outcome of the gubernatorial contest.
In its third outing, ArtiSta.Rita went beyond romancing the Kapampangan character: Paralaya is a communion with the Kapampangan soul. The spirituality of the race is celebrated here, even in the most mundane and ordinary of places, things and events.
Can anything be extraordinary in that ubiquitous roadside sign Abe Pakakalale? The simple caution for motorists to slow it down is lifted to the high moral plane of right over wrong in treading the very road of life – “dadalan kami king yatu,” to the ultimate destination – “parasan mi balen nang indu.”
Akasya starts with but immediately transcends imaginings of Joyce Kilmer’s famous ode to the tree, and assumes the very manifestation of the Creator Himself, cherishing and nurturing all of creation – “Lingap mu’t lugud king labuad/Sasalbag babie kang bie kanakung abe.”
The search for life’s meaning that takes one to great distances and greater longings only to find it within oneself, if only one opened his heart – so celebrated in Paulo Coelho’s novels, most notably in The Alchemist – finds a fuller, and deeper, expression in Pamanuli -- “Nung nukarin mengaparas/Ikwang mengalampas-lampas/Atiu ka pala keni king lele/Kakung matimyas.” Life’s journey ends where it starts – with the Lord.
And then, oneness with Him. Stirrings from the prophet Isaiah, resonate in Abe Mu Ku – “Abe mu ku nukarin ka man/Abe mu ku kapilan man/Ala ng muna pa/King lugud ku keka/Abe mu ku kakung kaluguran.”
Indeed, there is more to moonlight than Eros. Bulan provides an uplift to the spirit eclipsed in the darkness of despair – “Potang malungkut ka/Potang tatakut ka/Potang paintunan mu ku/Lumwal ka, talanga ka/Akit me ing bulan a masala/Karin mikit kata.”
The human spirit rises higher with man’s affirmation of God’s guiding light in Siwala – “Ing kekang s’wala diren nakung sala/Dala ne ning angin iadwang king batwin/Ing kekang s’wala diren nakung sala/King isip at pusu, kapasnawan.”
Penitential lamentation, so inhered in the praxis of Kapampangan Catholicism, naturally finds expression in Aduan Ku Mu – “Aduan ku namu Keka O Ginu/Katmuan Mu la ding kakulangan ku at antabayanan king gulu/Bustan Mu sa’ng mibayu ing karokang gewa ku/Lawen Mu sa kakung lugud daraun ku O Ginu.”
Two selections that pay homage to the father and the teacher still do adhere to the album’s general theme of the soul, of man’s pining for the divine: God after all is Father and Teacher to man.
To win his future, a young man looks back at his past and sings a song of gratitude to his father in Tatang Kung Kaluguran – “Ngeni maragul na ku, ladlad ku no ring pakpak ku/Sulapo na king angin sapul sapul king lupa ku/Mangaparas man nukarin, ing lugud mu atyu pa rin/Dakal a salamat tatang, king masanting a daratang.”
Mayap a Oras gives recognition to the hardships of the talaturu in moulding the mind of the youth – “Migigising kang maranun/Obra ing isipan/Mananggang gatpanapun/Babie mu ing eganaganang/Lugud at sala/ A manibat king pusu/Kabiasnan at kebaluan/Ika ing tuturu.”
As the Kapampangan is a lover, so some love songs are a must in an album expressive of his soul.
Bayung Bengi, Bayung Sinta sings of the lovers’ anticipation of an early evening tryst, of the stars watching over a love ever renewed – “Pagtiririn tala ding batwing masala/King bulalako metung ku mu adwan/Eka sa tatabili gamat pakatalan.”
The angst, the fears, the insecurities of the torpe at seeing the object of his repressed affections are played to life in the carrier single Paralaya -- “Dakal ku buring sabian keka/E ku balu nung atuan daka...Nung balu mu mung malwat ku nang sasalikut/Ing panamdaman, pansinan mu naku man…Alub kung makiagnan king kakung palsintan.”
On the wings of song, cliched yes but that is the experience one gets with the blend of the musical accompaniment that enhanced poetry, if not the purity, of the lyrics.
Thanks to Andy Alviz and all those great artists, Paralaya set me on a personal journey to get to my Kapampangan core.
(Zona Libre/Punto! November 5, 2007)

 

Vintage 1990: A take on the Sainted Cory

 

Hung up on the betrayer

 

                                                                                                            Getty Images

IT’S MAUNDY Thursday, April 6, commemorating the institution of the Holy Eucharist in the Last Supper, as well as Christ’s mandamus of love to his apostles, and serve – with all humility – thus, manifest in the master washing their feet. It is also the night of betrayal, even as the Bargain of Judas is commemorated on the previous day. Me, still so hung up on the betrayer warranting a full mental and emotional rewind to something written 10 years ago. Thus: 

Confessing Judas

MANY WERE called, only seven responded.

As it was with our early vocation at the Mater Boni Consilii Seminary where we ended unchosen, so it was with our planned retreat at a Fontana villa last Friday.

Still, this did not detract us from our pursuit for some spiritual advancement, with the Rev. Fr. Cito Carlos as most able guide.

The Mass Among Charlie celebrated was beautiful in its simplicity. His homily though seared our very soul. It was all about Judas, eternally damned antagonist in the drama of Christian salvation. 

“I do not approve of the Holy Week tradition of blasting Judas in effigy. It rankles of vengeance which is most un-Christian,” he said, even as he hastened that he had no intention of justifying Judas’ betrayal.

An “expanded perspective to draw some lessons, if not inspiration, from,” he said of his take on the kissing-betrayer, which he admitted he drew from our pre-Mass pleasantries on how he came to be our retreat master.

He chuckled upon learning he was the fourth priest we approached to conduct our retreat, all the other three deeming we were beyond salvation, only half-jokingly. Hence the Judas model – not for us to emulate but to learn from.

“Yes, Judas made a deal with the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver to deliver Jesus to them but on condition that he should not be harmed,” Among Charlie reminded us. “The deal went sour when Jesus was lashed, scourged, and inflicted with all sorts of pain and insults.”

So, Judas wanted out of the deal by returning to the priests the payment, woefully sorry for what he had done.      

Indeed, Matthew 27:3-5: “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.’ And they said, ‘What is that to us? See thou to that.’ And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

Suicide is abominable in the eyes of God. So, Judas compounded his already most heinous crime of betraying the Son of God by killing himself.

But did Judas really hang himself in remorse for what he did?

Acts 1:18-19: “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, the field of blood.”

Some apparent contradiction there with Matthew 27:3-5 on the death of Judas and the place of circumstance, which the succeeding verses – Matthew 27:6-8 – had as: “And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, ‘It is not lawful for us to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.’ And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, the field of blood, unto this day.”

Need to find some gospel harmonist to synthesize those seeming contradictions.

My seminary brother Boiti Portugal took a tack different from mine in our reflection on Judas: “My mind... is in darkness! My God... God, I'm sick! I've been used! And you knew! You knew all the time! God, I will never know why you chose me for your crime! Your foul, bloody crime! My God, you have murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered...”

Not from Matthew, Luke, Mark or John, not even from Paul, but from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice – the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.

Yeah, instantly came to mind there the doggone dogma of an agnostic past: “Without Judas there is no salvation.” As instantly denounced as extreme unorthodoxy, twisted theology, damned heresy.

So dared we flirted with some things far beyond our theological limits. When we lacked the simple courage to go to confession!

One of the guys, I think it was Boss Tayag, asked if we could just write down our sins on paper to be read in silencio by Among Charlie and burned after the Confiteor. The smoke of our contrition rising to the heavens there.

On the other hand, tech-savvy as he is, Ashley Manabat suggested we just text Among our sins and he would text back to us his absolution and our penance. E-confession, anyone?

Aye, verily doing a St. Augustine in his own Confessions we were all there: “Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo (Give me chastity and continence, but not just yet)!” 

In the end, Among Charlie issued a general absolution – with the condition that we should go to confession at the earliest time possible.

And everybody went to communion. But me. Unable, unwilling to let go of Judas. As yet.        

(First published April 3, 2013)