• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The proposed Joint Venture Agreement between IGNITE Power and Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) is now extremely important or even indispensable to its consumers, says consumer group Power Watch Negros.
Wennie Sancho, Power Watch Negros secretary general, declared that consumers are fed up with the present state of affairs under CENECO.
In their minds, any improvement in CENECO services by whatever means necessary, be it a JVA with Ignite (MORE) Power, or any other entity is more preferable than maintaining the sickening status quo of CENECO, he claimed.
Both Power Watch Negros and UCARE, another consumer group, will soon sign a manifesto expressing their support to the JVA.
On the other hand, progressive organizations such as Freedom from Debt Coalition Negros and Negros Consumer Watch will also launch the anti CENECO Joint Venture Agreement Coalition (ACJC) on May 25 at the San Sebastian Complex in Bacolod City.
Meanwhile, representatives of IGNITE Power will brief members of the Bacolod City Council on the proposed JVA on June 5.
In a statement, Power Watch Negros said that the excessive amount of money being paid by CENECO consumers for their monthly electric bills is not worth the services they are providing.
Stressing that the expectation of CENECO as an electric cooperative has been largely unfulfilled, because the process of decision-making and membership influence over the EC has been minimal, Power Watch Negros claimed that it was exacerbated by the fact that most people who are appointed or “elected” as officials are not qualified and incompetent political appointees, who got their positions out of horse-trading or sheer luck, which Power Watch Negros said contributes greatly to graft and corruption.
It also noted that the electric cooperative is plagued with an avalanche of complaints regarding its quality of service, the frequency of unscheduled power interruptions and poor quality of electricity in terms of fluctuating voltage.
With years of mismanagement and neglect that have piled up, it would make it difficult for CENECO to defend against a JVA that will end up with the rehabilitation of CENECO’s infrastructure, upgrade its antiquated transformers and power lines and the installation of the state-of-the-art gadgets and technologies to level up the operation of CENECO-IGNITE (MORE Power Corp.) as partners in progress for economic and social development, Power Watch Negros further said.*
