Village chief busted for alleged jumper twice

A village chief in Molo, Iloilo City is accused of alleged power pilferage after personnel of power distributor MORE Electric and Power Corp. found an illegal connection in his house Friday last week.

According to a report from MORE Power, its apprehension team discovered the alleged illegal connection or jumper 8 a.m. Friday following reports of a non-functioning meter at Bangga Panot in Brgy. San Juan, Molo.

The team also discovered that the meter was stolen from Arevalo where it was registered. The team also found five wires connected to the meter. While the meter was not spinning or reading electricity flowing from the distribution line, the load test indicated that electricity was coursing through the line, meaning that the meter was tampered.

The team traced the lines and found out that it was connected to the house of Punong Barangay Pascual “Sipil” Espinosa some 125 meters away.

While Espinosa has his own meter, his house was allegedly connected to the stolen and illegal meter.

Four wires were also traced to the village chief’s house but these were already disconnected.

The apprehension team claimed that Espinosa was not home during their operation.

MORE Power said it will prepare a differential billing for Espinosa and will make him pay for the alleged stolen electricity. He could also be charged for violating Republic Act 7832 (Anti-Pilferage of Electricity and Theft of Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Act of 1994) if he refuses to pay.

This is the second time that Espinosa allegedly used a jumper connection. The first was in July 2020 and he purportedly paid more than P70,000 for the differential billing.

But in radio interviews, Espinos denied stealing electricity from MORE Power using jumper connection saying the line from the alleged tampered meter was not connected to his house.

He also denied that he was not home when the apprehension team investigated the alleged jumper connection. He said that he even showed to the MORE Power personnel his proof of billing on Friday morning.

Joy Fantilaga, a spokesperson of MORE Power, said they will file a case against the village chief. They also found the “erratic consumption history” of Espinosa’s record indicating a sudden plunge in kilowatt-hour consumed despite the numerous appliances inside his house.