“THE best option for Bacolod City now is the joint venture agreement (JVA).”
This was stressed by City Councilor Claudio Puentevella, chairperson of the City Council committee on energy and public utilities, after he held a public consultation Monday, June 5, at the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC) on the JVA between Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and Primelectric Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Iloilo City-based More Power Corp.
The JVA was signed by Ceneco and Primelectric on Saturday, June 3, in Bacolod City.
Primelectric led by its president and chief executive officer Roel Castro officially turned over to Puentevella the copy of the JVA documents during the public consultation.
“After hearing them, and I think our constituents also experienced the same problem in our electricity, the JVA is the best option now for Bacolod. We experienced a lot of problems with Ceneco but we did not hear any solution from them,” Puentevella said.
He said Primelectric explained and presented well their intention to serve the people member-consumers of Ceneco.
He added that he will submit the JVA contract between Ceneco and Primelectric to the City Council on Wednesday, June 7.
Puentevella noted that for almost a year, Ceneco failed to address the power outages problem in the city and they also failed to present their concrete plan on how to improve their services.
He said at least five groups submitted their opposition papers to the City Council and all their questions were also answered by Primelectric
“I think before they submit their opposition papers, they should first listen to the intention of Primelectric. They have more plans for the improvement of the power supply. At this point, they are the best option because they have concrete plans to improve its services, from the rates down to system loss, they have a solution,” he said.
Ceneco covers Bacolod City, capital of Negros Occidental, and neighboring cities of Bago, Talisay, Silay and the municipalities of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto or with a total of 210,000 member-consumer-owners (MCOs).
Puentevella said that after the signing of the JVA, it will be decided by Ceneco’s MCOs through a plebiscite.
The plebiscite will be held on June 24 and 25, and July 1 and 2.
For his part, Wennie Sancho, secretary-general of Power Watch Negros Advocates, Inc., said the JVA shall be the deciding factor as to whether they shall have an affordable and reliable power supply with the prompt and efficient services of a distribution utility or shall they continue to remain as a long-suffering consumer with all inconvenience and burden that they could no longer endure under Ceneco’s present-state-of-affairs.
He said the ratification of the JVA in a referendum is the call of the hour.
The implementation of this JVA shall give the Ceneco consumers a peace of mind, knowing fully well that all the inconvenience brought about by unplanned power outage, will be put to rest, he said.
“Power Watch Negros strongly believes that JVA was consciously inspired by an intense and continuing concern to advance the welfare of the consumers, especially the underprivileged. The JVA will alter the circumstances that would provide us with a quality of life that we deserve as consumers,” he added.
Pepito Pico, president of Negros Consumers’ Watch (NCW), in a statement, said that they opposed the JVA of Ceneco and Primelectric.
He said that Ceneco is among the biggest 121 distribution and supply utilities all over the country and operating in four cities and two municipalities in central Negros.
For almost five decades, since its incorporation on February 24, 1975, it has served at least 217,000 households and business establishments in its franchise areas overcoming the most difficult problems and strategies it has experienced particularly the powerful typhoon Rufing where more than half of its transmission lines or poles were down.
He added that Ceneco is not an ailing or mismanaged cooperative to justify a power take-over. JVA will result in the retrenchment of Ceneco employees, violate the security of tenure under the Labor Code, and put the right to unionize at risk.*