Electric coops endorse Robredo

Electric cooperatives (ECs) throughout the country have thrown their support behind Vice President Leni Robredo’s presidential bid.

Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (PHILRECA) president and partylist Rep. Presley De Jesus said the country’s 121 ECs are backing Robredo, who recently signed a ten-point agenda covenant with rural power distributors.

The commitment, called “Covenant for Equitability Through Empowerment of Rural Communities”, was entered into by Robredo, leaders from the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (PHILRECA), Empowered Citizens of the Philippines (EmCiP), the National Center of Electric Cooperatives Consumer (NCECCO), and other organizations of the so-called One EC-MCO Movement from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The covenant enumerates a 10-point agenda that the signatories consider as necessary for us “to achieve genuine and sustainable development for the Filipino people, especially those in the countryside”. It advocates and espouses the following:

• leader based on qualification, integrity, and credibility;
• direct communication with each other;
• social equitability in governance;
• government that focuses on rural development;
• resolute governance model against corruption, criminality, and a war on drugs;
• competent, experienced, and knowledgeable civil servants in the government;
• continued existence and renewal of EC franchises;
• legislative proposals that will lower energy cost;
• Mindanao Power Corporation, with ECs and MCOs as co-owners; and
• platform of governance centered on people empowerment.

Rep. Presley C. De Jesus, President of PHILRECA, said that the covenant is not only an expression of support to Robredo, but more importantly, an expression of trust and hope.

“We express our trust to VP Leni that she will embody the truest and most legitimate sense of leadership by strengthening further what she has started already, despite all the challenges she has encountered inside and outside of the confines of this government,” said De Jesus.

The legislator added that “along with this trust, we commit our hope to VP Leni… the hope for her to be a visionary and genuine president who will always uphold the rule of law and will always prioritize the welfare of the public over the interests of the few.”

The Vice President also received accolades from the National Center of Electric Cooperatives Consumers (NCECCO) Secretary General Edgardo Rama Masongsong, one of the signatories of the covenant.

“We are honored to have forged a common ground with the woman of the hour, our incumbent vice president, who is the epitome of genuine public service against all odds. We, in the One EC-MCO Movement, are in Solidarity with the Honorable Vice President Robredo, in her bid for the highest position in the land,” said Masongsong in his introduction of Robredo.

“We are a movement that believes in a leadership that puts the welfare of Filipinos above all; a leadership that strives to unite all sides despite differences in ideologies and beliefs; and a leadership that empowers community-owned services like our electric cooperatives,” added Masongsong.