PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has been invited to attend the National Convention of Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) on August 2 and 3 at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City.
Sulpicio Lagarde Jr., general manager of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), said Wednesday, June 28, that the convention will be attended by more than 1,000 delegates from 121 electric cooperatives all over the country.
Also invited were Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the committee on energy. The senator already confirmed his attendance.
Ceneco is hosting the convention with the Western Visayas Electric Cooperative Association and the Negros Island Region Electric Cooperative Association.
Lagarde said that during the convention, they expect to discuss threats to electric cooperatives so that they would not be vulnerable targets of takeover by private entities and influential persons.
“That’s why we are making sure that we improve our services. In fact, we have created a technical working group because we have a policy direction from the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission to bring down the systems loss cap of 13 percent to 7.5 percent,” he added.
Lagarde said at present, Ceneco’s systems loss is at 11.22 percent.