The Central Negros Electric Cooperative directors who were suspended by the National Electrification Administration for 30 days without pay are filing a motion for reconsideration to the decision finding them guilty of simple neglect of duty, Ceneco president Jojit Yap said Wednesday, July 13.
However, they are complying with the suspension order that has already taken effect, Yap said at press a conference.
Included in the NEA suspension order were Yap, and Ceneco directors Martha Joyce Cuenca, Ernie Larida, Antonio Panique and Eugene Velasco, and former director Robert J. Javellana and NEA project supervisor/acting general manager Danny L. Pondevilla.
Yap reiterated that Ceneco’s operations will not be affected by their suspension. Three other board members have not been suspended, she said.
The Ceneco directors who have not been suspended are Dwight Carbon, Noel Alarcon and Gerald Nicanor Jison.
The NEA decision stemmed from a complaint filed by Wennie Sancho, Power Watch secretary general, against the seven for alleged grave misconduct, gross neglect, dishonesty, gross insubordination, conduct prejudicial to the interest of the electric cooperative in connection with the one-year extension of Ceneco’s power sales contract with KEPCO SPC Power Corp.
NEA, in its decision, dismissed the charges of Sancho, but cited the seven for simple neglect of duty for failure to apply for a Certificate of Exemption from the Department of Energy prior to its Power Sales Extension Agreement with KSPC in 2011.
“There is no substantial evidence though that would show that their act of entering into an extension agreement has been extended by bad faith or fraudulent intent,” the NEA ruled.
Yap said they are filing the MR to explain to NEA why they did not file for a certificate of extension, and that they had not committed neglect of duty.
ON REFUND
Meanwhile, Yap said CENECO will refund its consumers for its net over-recoveries of P237,949,425.51 incurred from February 2004 to December 2017 as soon as it gets a copy of an Energy Regulatory Commission order to do so.
The Ceneco board has also held in abeyance the implementation of the cooperative’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with its employees as ordered by the Department of Labor and Employment pending resolution of its motion for reconsideration.*