posted February 03, 2019 at 07:05 pm by Alena Mae S. Flores
The Philippine Rural Electric
Cooperatives Association Inc., a group of 121 electric cooperatives, asked
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to be fair in addressing the plight of members
nationwide.
Philreca said in a statement Cusi’s
initial endorsement letter to the House of Representatives for the cancellation
of the franchise of 17 electric co-ops and its subsequent withdrawal were meant
“to manipulate the mindset of the public for them to think that the electric
cooperatives are not performing well.”
“And with this comes the
justification on the entry of private, for-profit and zero-experience
corporations. While we are fully aware of the secretary’s pre-conceived notion
of inefficient management, corruption, unnecessary political interference, as
well as institutional conflicts among ECs, based on his earlier pronouncements,
we still hope and expect him to be just and fair in assessing our
accomplishments and challenges at the same time,” the group said.
“We hope that the DoE would see how
the electric cooperatives have been operating in areas no private distribution
utility has dared to enter before,” Philreca said.
Cusi endorsed to the House of
Representatives through Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the revocation of franchise
of 17 electric cooperatives, saying these ECs were “underperforming and
financially and technically distressed”.
Philreca said this presumption was
unjust and biased and was done without prior consultation with the concerned
electric cooperatives.
“As it turned out, this endorsement
was done in haste and in the absence of due diligence on the part of the
Department of Energy, because just recently, the same endorsement was recalled
and recalled by Secretary Cusi himself,” Philreca said.
Cusi said there was a need “to
conduct further evaluation and assessment on the status and performance of
these cooperatives”, but Philreca said he should have done this first.
“While we believe that recalling and
revoking the original endorsement is the right thing to do, we cannot help but
express our sentiments because his actions have already caused significant
damage and irreparable negative impression to the ECs,” the group said.
Philreca said Cusi’s claims of an
inclusive review of the ECs “compliance to the service requirements of their
respective areas” to determine sustainable solutions “fall short of what
the secretary has been doing for the past months.”
Philreca said that since early last
year, Cusi had consistently declined restoring the budget cuts to the
government’s sitio electrification program.
The group said Cusi favored the
entry of for-profit corporations in the electrification sector versus
supporting ECs who are experiencing different kind of challenges.
“And he has never engaged the ECs on
any dialog or meeting with an open mind so as to come up with solutions,” the
group said.
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