Central Negros Electric Cooperatives (CENECO) officials on Thursday, September 1, maintained that they had not entered into any illegal power purchase contract and extensions, the rise in electricity rates is beyond their control, and that they have begun refunding consumers for the P238 million ordered by the Energy Regulatory Board (ERC).
The CENECO officials led by their president Jojit Yap and acting general manager Ervin Stan Leo Ticar , held a press conference in response to accusations hurled against them in a petition being circulated for signature that is set to be sent to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Ticar said they are consumers also and have been trying to find ways to lower power rates.
A heated confrontation by Wennie Sancho, Power Watch Negros Advocates secretary general ensued during the press conference.
Sancho, a staunch critic of the CENECO board and management, was accused by CENECO Director Eugene Velasco of forum shopping which prompted the latter’s heated response.
The petition that is being circulated for signature calls for the investigation and criminal prosecution of the CENECO board of directors and management for signing an alleged illegal power supply contract and extensions.
The petition circulated by the CENECO Consumers Forum and Amlig Kuryente also cites consequent high cost of electricity and brownouts.
The petition calls on the president, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, Senator Rafael Tulfo – Senate Committee on Energy chairman and Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez to look into the matter and help Ceneco member-consumers file formal complaints in a proper court.
The Ceneco officials, in response to the petition, maintained that there was nothing illegal in their power supply contract and extension with KEPCO-SALCON and that their actions can withstand scrutiny.
Yap said the complaint against the CENECO board on the alleged illegal contract and extensions was already dismissed by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) for being baseless.
On the other accusations hurled against them, these were their answers:
*On their one bill policy prior to disconnection, they said the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers requires that consumers must pay their bills not later than nine days after receipt of the monthly bill.
- CENECO’s availment of loans has no adverse effect on the consumers. The loan proceeds were used to pay power suppliers to avail of the P4.12M Prompt Payment Discount that benefited of consumers in the form or rate reduction of P0.0260 per kWh for July 2022. Loan payments are not charged to the consumers.
- The rise of electricity rates is rooted on increasing cost of generation as affected by the world fuel crisis and is happening all over the Philippines. CENECO’s rate is P 15.4772 per kWh while that of Northern Negros Electric Cooperative is P15.99 and Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative is P16.50.
*More than 50 percent of the brownouts or outages are triggered by the transmission and generation facilities. Brownouts result to revenue losses of CENECO because with no power, the kWh meter stops running.
*On the non-implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with its employees, CENECO is awaiting a final order from competent courts/regulatory bodies. CBA adjustments are not charged as additional cost to consumer bills.
*On the over recovery refund to consumers ordered by the ERC, they said they started payment of the P238M in the August 2022 billing and will end on the July 2024 at a rate of P0.0965/kWh per month. CENECO has also implemented the refund of the P149M over-recovery for the period 2018-2020 at a rate of P0.1509 kWh/month staring in the January 2022 billing and will end on December 2022.
They said consumers are encouraged to raise their concerns before the Energy Regulatory Commission as the proper venue for intervention.*