THE Benguet Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Beneco), through its Board of Directors and General Manager, issued last Friday an open letter addressed to Honorable City Councilor Fred Bagbagen, the other members of the City Council and the consumer-members of the cooperative in Baguio and Benguet. This is in connection with the privileged speech earlier delivered by Councilor Bagbagen in front of his colleagues assailing the acquisition by Beneco of property in the City.
In that letter, Beneco explained and gave several compelling reasons why it purchased over 1.2 hectares in prime property amidst the heartland of Baguio to the tune of 85 million pesos.
Foremost among the reasons given is the plan by Beneco to establish a bigger General Headquarters Building that will not only house the various Beneco offices but will also serve as a one stop shop for the convenience of the consumers, the establishment of a sub-station to increase load capabilities thus ensuring sufficient future system capacity as well as system reliability, efficiency and stability, the provision for a stock yard and warehouse for tools and materials, parking space for vehicles and heavy equipment, provision for other multi-purpose and recreational facilities, and replication of a peoples development academy similar to that established in Cebu to serve as a venue for trainings and seminars.
Likewise, Beneco also clarified the issue as to the absence of prior information and/or consultation with the member-consumers of the cooperative vis-à-vis the plan to purchase the said property. In its explanation, Beneco maintained that “The members of the Beneco board are elected by the member consumers per district as their respective representatives. They are given powers by virtue of the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws. The board does not claim omnipotent power over the member-consumers who have supremacy over them. But the decision to purchase a lot as an example, is an exercise of their power and functions so conferred to them by the Beneco By-Laws” and “the purchase of the lot is in order and it is a legitimate exercise of the power purchasing decision which rests in a board of directors duly elected at large and vested with this mandate. We are placing our reputation and even our positions in the block because if this was a wrong decision then we will not be elected again.”
Well folks, I guess that pretty much answers the question raised by Councilor Bagbagen regarding the absence of information supplied by the cooperative to its member-consumers anent the purchase of the said property. Simply put, the decision to buy the property is vested in the Board of Directors by the by-Laws of the Beneco and the fact that they were elected at large to represent the member-consumers supposedly clothes them the mandate to do so. To follow the logic of the cooperative there is no need to neither consult the member-consumers about the matter nor obtain their consent since this has already been assumed by their representatives which are the Board of Directors.
Now that both sides have been heard on the matter, at least on the non-disclosure issue, I leave to you dear readers to further comprehend the ramifications of this whole affair and with the hope that the resulting outcome of this controversy will lead to the benefit of the member-consumers of the cooperative.
Meanwhile during last Monday’s regular session of the City Council, Beneco General Manager Gerardo Versoza was invited to shed light on the request of City Councilor Erdolfo V. Balajadia for the installation of new additional streetlights along Loakan Road, Baguio City.
Versoza was forthright in saying that Beneco is willing to provide as many streetlight fixtures as needed in the said area provided the city will pay for the energy consumption. An obstacle was later met by the council when it was found out that no money has yet been allocated to take care of the consumption for new streetlights that will be installed along Loakan Road. Along this line, the City Council requested the City Engineer’s Officer thru Engineer Leo Bernardez to conduct a comprehensive study on all the streetlights installed in the City and to determine whether the City is better off when Beneco is managing the streetlights or whether the city is more effective and efficient in managing them.
Also mindful of the impending campaign period, the members of the august body gave all their attention in discussing, deliberating and deciding on other numerous and very important items in the agenda towards the end that at the conclusion of their regular session they were able to approve thirty one matters out of sixty items in the agenda. With this accomplishment the members of the City Council would be more than comfortable entering the election campaign period knowing that most of the urgent matters that needed their attention have already been disposed of and attended to during their term.