Unless the Iloilo City government is able to settle its overdue bills with the Panay Electric Co. (PECO), the City Hall, public markets, plazas and street lights might be plunged into darkness during the Christmas season when most homes are adorned with bright decorative lights.

A highly-placed source in the Iloilo City government said the Mabilog administration has exhausted its budgeted funds intended for the payment of its electricity bills -- estimated at P7 million a month -- and is scrambling to enact a supplement budget ordinance to settle this obligation.

“We have been given by PECO management until the second week of December to pay our bills,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The News Today.

The city government made its last payment for the PECO bills last August this year. Mabilog has assured PECO the city government will pay by the second week of December, the source said.

Councilor Perla S. Zulueta, chairman of the Sanggunian committee on appropriations, said she has no knowledge about the overdue bills of the city government. “I will just wait for the request for a supplemental budget and see whether there is an item for electricity payments,” she said.

PECO management has declined to confirm nor deny this report.

However, an employee in the public utility company who has access to customer records said this is true. “The city government has made a commitment to pay PECO on or before Dec. 15, 2012,” he said.

The PECO employee asked that his identity be kept confidential because he is not authorized to divulge such information.*