LEGEND has it that a lady named Karen was in a stormy relationship with a man named, Lawin. These lovers started as friends who made the Pacific Ocean as their playground.

One day, Karen found out that Lawin had a temper, and foresaw that if she continued her relationship with him, she will be in an abusive relationship so she ran away from him.

Lawin was not pleased with this decision of Karen. He tried to run after Karen. He tried to run after her. This made Karen angry and made her run faster away from him towards the west.

She stumbled on a big stone called Luzon. Karen ravaged some parts of this big stone because of her recklessness. This caused some destruction in the agriculture and power lines in this big stone.

Running after Karen is Lawin. He could not run as fast as Karen. He was much larger. This made him exasperated. He became angrier and more powerful.

The same big stone that Karen stumbled on was the same one which Lawin also stumbled on. Luzon was also ravaged because of the Lawin stumbling. This devastated more the island of Luzon.

And because Karen went to China, too, Lawin followed and devastated also some parts of that country until they both dissipated and disappeared from existence.

***

Both storms left the island of Luzon in the dark. The dark ages I call it.

Since I was young whenever there was a brownout, I would shout, “Anya met ti BENECO!”

The past days after the two typhoons, our area was the last to be energized. It may be quite insensitive for other towns of Benguet which have not been energized until now, but I have my personal reasons. It brings out my dark side.

Whenever this happens, I ask the question, “What is taking BENECO too long to restore power?”

It has become a perennial problem. After a storm, I understand that there will be damage to the powerlines, but why is it taking very long to repair these damages? In Economics, we call it, INEFFICIENT.

It makes me wonder why they were able to buy an expensive lot along South Drive and construct a very nice building on it, and chose not to invest on improving their services?

I mean their service is waaaaay below satisfactory. I have some friends commenting on this on Facebook. That is their experience of their service, too. I cannot blame them, but that is the same observation I have, POOR SERVICE, and I know poor service when I know one coming from a customer service intensive industry myself a few years back.

I really hope that they improve further their service. Some suggestions I have in mind is investing on their human resources, hiring more people, training them very well; investing also in their equipments (including power lines and posts) and vehicles.

I have my hopes high with the likes of Engr. Mel Licuben still there in BENECO. I believe their services will get better.