Telcos told: Do not charge fees for cut connections during typhoon

Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival. | file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival has asked the telecommunications companies  (telcos) to forego billing consumers who lost their connections during the typhoon.

The councilor delivered a privilege speech on January 5, 2022, in the regular council session urging the telcos to provide reprieve to affected consumers. 

“Pagbagyo nawala man gyod ang connections. Nahunong gyod ang service so dapat maminusan na ang bill,” said Archival in an interview on January 8, 2022. 

The councilor noted that many users were in some sort of paid plans from telcos, but most of them were not able to enjoy these data plans because of the disrupted connection during the typhoon. 

With this, the City Council is asking telcos to deduct the days when a consumer when their services were bogged down to the next billing. 

And if the connection did not return for a long periof of time, especially for DSL or Fiber connections, the disconnrcted days must also be deducted from the next billing.

“Luoy kaayo ang public nga wala kagamit sa ilang mga internet connection pero magbayad gihapon. It’s not fair,” said Archival. 

(Take pity on the public, who did not have the chanc to use their internet connection but they were still paying for its use.)

Along with the call for the telcos to provide a reprieve for customers, the City Council has also summoned the representatives of telcos in the city to apprise the council of their restoration efforts. 

They also called Visayan Electric to explain the progress of the reenergization efforts and why this took time. 

Archival is also asking Visayan Electric to explain their “no billing” policy this January 2022. 

Visayan Electric will not be collecting bills for January 2022 because many households and areas havd yet to be reenergized. 

“Dapat iexplain nila unsay meaning sa no billing. Dili sila mocollect pero moreflect sa next billing or ifree gyod nila ning December 16 to January?” asked Archival. 

(They should explain what they meant by no billing. They will not collect but this will reflect on the next billing or they will make free electricity used from December 16 to January?)

The power distributor is also set to face the council on these concerns. 

In previous statements, Visayan Electric explained that the February bill would reflect the period from December and January. 

If the consumer has been reenergized within that period, this will reflect on the February bill. 

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