JVA plebiscite to resume after voters’ list purge

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) general manager Atty. Arnel Lapore said the plebiscite on its Joint Venture Agreement with a private power distribution firm will resume after the cleansing of the consumers’ list.

Lapore told Daily Guardian that the cleansing process was finished last week and the total number of consumers will be known within the week.

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) will announce the newest data.

“We will take our cue from NEA. We can now expect that the plebiscite will be smooth sailing,” Lapore said.

NEA earlier granted the request of local chief executives under Ceneco’s franchise area to temporarily suspend the plebiscite on the JVA offered Primelectric Holdings Inc. (PHI) to give way to the purging of the list of eligible voters.

The mayors complained that the names of some Ceneco consumers were not on the list while deceased or dead consumers or those who have relocated were still on the rolls.

NEA chief Antonio Mariano Almeda said the concerns of the mayors were valid, thus they cleared the move to postpone the plebiscite.

Reiterating that NEA has no interest in the JVA, whether it is approved or disapproved, Almeda said they are “concerned with the protection of the rights of Ceneco’s member consumers, ensuring that their votes are properly accounted for and that the legitimate processes wherein they exercise such rights are protected.”

The postponement allowed Ceneco, with the help of NEA personnel, to “verify and confirm the accuracy of plebiscite’s voters’ list, and to secure any and all systems, protocols, and/or procedures used to carry out the plebiscite, ensuring conformity with the verified and confirmed voter list, to be vetted by NEA.”

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson welcomed the move of NEA to suspend the JVA plebiscite.

“This exercise is very important. We are deciding the fate of CENECO. We are also deciding as far as electricity is concerned,” Lacson said.

Ceneco has entered into a JVA with Primelectric Holdings Inc., an affiliate of More Power owned by businessman Enrique Razon.

Lapore has justified that the JVA is a needed shot in the arm of Ceneco which is accumulating losses amounting to P20 million monthly.