Electricity bill woes hound Baguio command center

BAGUIO CITY — The local government here is facing a dilemma as it was found out that it has yet to pay the more than P200,000 bill of the Smart City Command Center covering the months of August 2021 to December 2022.

In line with this, the City Council recently approved a legislation approving the request for authority of the Baguio City mayor to charge the unpaid amount to the 2023 Appropriations of the SC3.

The SC3 is being managed by the Information and Technology Division of the City Mayor's Office.

To recall, the Benguet Electric Cooperative on 13 November 2023 sent a letter to the local government notifying it that it already has an electric consumption of P201,304 from August 2021 to December 2022.

Because of this, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong send a request letter to the Baguio City Council for the appropriation of the amount from the Current Appropriations of the SC3.

The local government explained that the electric consumption was used for the operation of the IoT boxes of the SC3 and Air Quality Monitoring devices installed in different parts of the city.

Based on the certification of the Local Finance Committee, there is a P2,177,48.57 fund for the electricity expenses of the operation of the SC3.

Beneco, on the other hand, has no explanation why it took a long time to ask the city government to pay its electric consumption.