LAOAG CITY, Jan. 17—Mayor Chevylle Fariñas said she was disappointed over the report of an alleged unauthorized electric connection at the city commercial complex here.
Mayor Fariñas said that for three years, a flower shop (owned by a male proprietor) located beside the escalator and the city mayor’s office annex at the city supermarket here was found to have not paid its monthly electric bills amounting to more than P25,000 due to alleged unauthorized connection.
Instead, she said, the city government unknowingly footed the bills for three years.
She explained that when the flower shop opened three years ago, a city electrician temporary tapped its electric connection to the nearby mayor’s office annex at the city market.
Since then, the shop did not re-wire its electric connection and remained directly connected with mayor’s office for three years.
However, it was only this January that the illegal connection was discovered during this period of business permit renewal for all business establishments in the city.
The mayor said the erring flower shop owner had asked for an apology and conveyed his willingness to pay the electric bills. The shop owner had blamed the city electrician for the oversight.
However, the mayor was reluctant to give any decision on the matter noting that she already referred the case to the city legal officer for any appropriate action. (tsg w/ report from nrt, mma)
