A group of consumers have filed a petition to nullify the joint venture agreement (JVA) between Primelectric Holdings Inc. and Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) and to halt its scheduled plebiscite, their lawyer Rey Gorgonio said on Sunday, June 18.
Gorgonio said the petition for Declaratory Relief and Declaration of Nullity against the JVA was filed before the Bacolod Regional Trial Court Friday afternoon.
The petition also includes an application for the issuance of a Preliminary Injunction and a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on the JVA and its upcoming plebiscite on July 25, 26, and August 1 and 2, he said.
“We welcome this and let the court decide. But as long as there is no court order, we will continue to prepare for the plebiscite and conduct our information education campaign together with CENECO,” Jonathan Cabrera, Primelectric and More Power spokesperson, said.
Rommel Pido, Aaron Sorbito, and former Rep. Pete Pico, representing the Negros Consumers Watch and the Anti-CENECO JVA Coalition, with lawyers Wax Apawan and Rey Gorgonio filed the petition.
Gorgonio said the conduct of the referendum on the JVA is unlawful.
There is a provision in the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 10531 (National Electrification Administration Reform Act of 2013) that Ceneco cannot conduct a referendum within 10 years from the last date of referendum, he said.
The last CENECO referendum was in 2017 for the conversion of Ceneco from non-stock, nonprofit to a stock and profit cooperative duly registered before the Cooperative Development Authority, he said.
“Now they want to convert CENECO into a private company through a referendum, which is not allowed and is one of our grounds for seeking a TRO”, Gorgonio said.
They changed the term referendum into plebiscite but that’s the same thing, he added.
The JVA states that the joint venture company for purposes of facilitating Primelectric‘s infusion of needed capital and financial resources into the CENECO distribution system shall be the Negros Electric and Power Corp.
Primelectric will purchase 70 percent of CENECO’s distribution system while the cooperative will retain 30 percent ownership.*