CONSUMER group Power Watch Negros (PWN) has slammed anew Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) for lack of transparency, its top official said.
PWN Secretary-General Wennie Sancho, in a letter to Ceneco president Dwight Carbon, said the mutual understanding between the cooperative and its member-consumers necessary for transparency was neglected.
Sancho said the consumers suffer from the loss of representation and this atrophied system has left consumers more vulnerable to domination by others.
"Decision-making process is now confined at the Board room and they are difficult to discern amid all the bewildering technical facts and figures," he said, adding that "they represent the real source of the consumers general discontent, as to how and why some interests are allowed to dominate the policy-direction of Ceneco, while others are excluded."
The letter dated November 18 further said there is a climate of stagnant doubt and a sense of disappointment that enveloped the member-consumers of the cooperative.
Sancho told Carbon that "the things that we were taught and wish to believe about consumer rights and welfare no longer seem to fit the present reality."
"We were cut out by the [Ceneco] management in the decision-making process, surrounding the most important issues," he said.
"The Ceneco board of directors managed to shape the outcome of their policies while deflecting what ordinary consumers think and believe," Sancho said.
The PWN has demanded accountability of members of Ceneco Board and top management officials to the consumers.
"Also, a sense of honesty in the communication between the two parties and a cooperative management that is able to adjust to new realities because it is compelled to listen to many voices and react to what the consumers see and express," the consumer group said.
"Ceneco should lead to confront its problems rather than develop new ways to hide from them," it added.
Sancho said these are just some of the significant issues that PWN had been raising for several years but only scant attention was given to these concerns.