• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Consumers opposing the privatization of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) will be holding a series of actions to express rejection of the proposed joint venture agreement (JVA), Negros Consumers Watch, led by Pete Pico, said in a press statement.
The proposed Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) is the privatization of the distribution utility that will change its character from being public service oriented to profit oriented. The private company that will take over CENECO will always ensure that profits fall into the pockets of Enrique Razon Jr., Manuel Pangilinan, and other shareholders of the IGNITE Power and Energy Holdings Inc., he said.
Privatization is not a cure all remedy to the problems of brown-outs and other issues faced by the electric cooperatives and neither will it lower down prices of electricity, Pico said.
In fact, MORE distribution, supply, and metering (DSM) charges of P2.32 per kilowatt-hour is almost twice that of CENECO’s P1.18 DSM charges per kilowatt-hour, he said.
CENECO also has the lowest residential rate for March 2023 among the three electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental at P13.67 per kWh, which is even lower than that of MORE Power which is now at P13.72. The downward trend in CENECO’s generation charges is expected to continue in the coming months as a result of the significant reduction of the coal price index. In addition to this, the recently concluded Competitive Selection Process (CSP) for 20 MW supply of CENECO is expected to further reduce the rates by at least P1.00 per kWh. Not to mention, that the winning bidder is a geothermal company, Pico said.
“We call for NEA to immediately look into this matter and fulfill its mandate. NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda himself claimed that CENECO is not ailing nor is it mismanaged. Therefore, there is no basis for this joint venture in the first place,” he said.
“We strongly condemn the action of CENECO’s acting General Manager Arnel Lapore, for publicly pushing for this devious agreement at the expense of the consumers. The mandate of the National Electrification Administration (NEA), the very agency which installed Lapore as the temporary caretaker of CENECO, is to help improve the operations and services of CENECO, not to serve it to greedy capitalists on a silver platter,” Pico said.
What Lapore should focus on, instead, should be the approval of the long pending CAPEX applications of CENECO before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and its system loss reduction measures including the hiring of more personnel for CENECO’s anti-pilferage campaign. This is the real solution to CENECO’s most pressing problem, not the JVA, he said.
The Negros Consumers Watch (NCW) also belies the insinuation that the opposition to the JVA is an action only of the supervisory and rank-and-file employees, Pico said.
We, the consumers of CENECO, mindful of the effect of privatization and corporate takeover as we have experienced with that of BACIWA, are alongside with the workers in opposing this disadvantageous agreement, he said.
They will be submitting their position papers before the NEA, ERC, CENECO Board of Directors, and other bodies to express their stand. They will be mobilizing the consumers thru education and information campaigns on the issue of privatization and JVA. They will campaign intensively to reject the joint venture agreement in a referendum, Pico said.
“We are facing a goliath in this fight who surely will mobilize money and lobby but we have the people where power resides,” he added.
POWER WATCH BACKS JVA
The protest-rally early this month spearheaded by the Responsible Supervisors and Confidential Union of Employees, against the proposed joint venture agreement (JVA) between CENECO and MORE Power Corp, was a ploy to put the JVA in a bad light, out of their fear that they may not retain their supervisory and confidential positions, including their excessive salaries, fat bonuses and allowances in “confusing abundance,” Power Watch secretary general Wennie Sancho said.
Without fear of contradiction, it is very clear that their opposition against the JVA is to protect their own vested interest and not that of the consumers as they had claimed. They had already made a conclusion that the JVA is detrimental to the consumers basing on their “gist”, even if they had not read the terms and conditions of the proposed JVA, he said.
They are like prophets of doom, involved in a “guessing game” based on their own misunderstanding of the JVA because of their insecurities in their security of tenure as middle management workers. These CENECO apologists are masquerading themselves as consumer advocates which could be an act of hypocrisy according to some observers, Sancho said.
“We respect the rights of the people to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances, particularly if it involves moral and legal issues. Unfortunately, their declaration that the JVA is detrimental is a sweeping conclusion of an agreement that is to be debated and to be drafted yet,” he said.
“Speculative analysis is dangerous if we had not seen the JVA to determine if it is sufficient in form and substance. We agree with CENECO management that the opposition against the JVA is premature and baseless,” Sancho said.
Power Watch Negros is open to the JVA as long as it is intended to advance the welfare of the consumers, but we will be the first to reject it if it is grossly disadvantageous to the consumers, he said.
“Contracts like the JVA should be above board and should not violate the law to be acceptable to us. If this upcoming JVA is intended to rehabilitate and overhaul the power infrastructure of CENECO in order to level up its technical operation as the platform of the JVA in applying the state-of-the-art technologies and gadgets in order to correct the dismal failure of CENECO in providing affordable, reliable and efficient power supply, we will not interpose any objection against the JVA,” Sancho said.
Those who are opposing are however, missing the point that the JVA could put up a robust distribution system with maximum tolerance to causes of unintended power outages, he said, adding that they are against progress and development.
“Let us provide an atmosphere that is conducive for the JVA by actively participating in the decision-making process to provide a bright future for our children. The next generation of consumers will blame us if we had failed to provide them with a bright tomorrow by being apathetic in deciding on vital issues like the JVA,” Sancho added.*