20 labor groups support Ceneco JVA

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Twenty labor groups under the General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) on Monday signed a resolution supporting the proposed Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CENECO) and Ignite Power.

GAWA secretary-general Wennie Sancho headed the labor leaders in signing the resolution in a press conference at the Negros Press Club here.

The resolution stated that the consumers in the franchise area of Ceneco have been “suffering for decades from all forms of inconvenience due to unscheduled power interruptions, inefficient services due to dismal failure of Ceneco to provide affordable, reliable and efficient power supply.”

They further said that “Ceneco failed in its task to rehabilitate and overhaul its basic facilities, particularly the transformers substations and power lines which are literally overheating to full capacity, resulting to huge system loss at the expense of the consumers.”

“The proposed Joint Venture Agreement between Ceneco and MORE Power Corporation (sister company of Ignite Power) served as a lifesaving mechanism that will improve and level up the operation and services of Ceneco to serve and advance the welfare of the consumers,” the resolution added.

The resolution noted that “we in the labor sector particularly the General Alliance of Workers Association have high expectations on this JVA as it would harness modern technology and state-of-the-art gadgets using geographical information system with a scheme to reconfigure the system when there are sudden and unscheduled power interruptions.”

“A more reliable, efficient, and stable power supply is the foundation of our economic development, a robust power supply will attract more investors which in turn will create jobs opportunities and income that will pump prime the economy and strengthen the purchasing power of the workers,” they stressed.