Power Watch Negros, a consumer watchdog, commended Roel Castro, president and CEO of Negros Electric and Power Corporation, for cleansing the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) of anomalous, illegal and anti-consumer practices.
Power Watch Negros Secretary-General Wennie Sancho, in a press release Friday, March 22, said that the initial measures are strong indicators that NEPC is serious in its rehabilitation program when it will takes over the operation of CENECO by restoring it into a state of efficiency and good management as a distribution utility.
As one of the resource persons during the Negros Island Power Forum on March 20, Castro revealed that in their joint survey with CENECO, a total of 80,000 electrical meters have been discovered to have no seals and an additional 5,000 to 6,000 are illegal connections within the franchise area of CENECO.
The illegal connections resulted to a 12 percent overall loss for CENECO, he said.
Sancho asserted that it is an injustice to the consumers who are promptly paying their bills because they absorb the power theft or system loss. “We are being made to pay for the power supply that we did not use.”
“Power Watch Negros was vindicated in its claim that there was gross negligence on the part of CENECO to protect the rights of the consumers, Sancho said.
“It is a tragedy that those CENECO employees who were against the JVA, the NEPC franchise and privatization are among those who are involved in this dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming as CENECO employees. They have no right and they do not deserve to be working with NEPC if performance will be the criteria,” he said.
“There should be an accountability on this issue. The supervisors and the department heads should be made to explain about this fiasco,” Sancho said.*