Should Electric Cooperatives Be Privatized?

By Herbert Vego

IN a previous issue (27 May 2025) this corner echoed the argument of critics of electric cooperatives urging the conversion of electric cooperatives into regulated private corporations, since they have been losing billions of pesos in government loans and subsidies.

Among a score of losing electric cooperatives, I cited the case of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) in Bacolod City which could have gone bankrupt had it not entered into a joint venture agreement with Primelectric Holdings Inc., which also owns MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) in Iloilo City and Bohol Light in Tagbilaran City.

Until that joint venture which took over the new company under the new name Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC or Negros Power) in August 2024, Ceneco had been suffering from operational losses ranging from ₱20 to ₱30 million a month on top of ₱613 million in accumulated loans from the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and various banks.

NEA itself is bleeding, having lent, according to the Institute of Contemporary Economics, around ₱10.52 billion to electric cooperatives here in Panay and Guimaras islands for their capital expenditures in the years 2022 to 2024, but with no significant reversal of fortune yet.

I guess NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda has overstretched his patience. He has already bent his ire against three electric cooperatives outside our region.

A report recently published in the Manila-based Daily Tribune said that the NEA head had filed cases against the officials of Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative, Inc. (INEC), Nueva Ecija II Electric Cooperative, Inc. – Area 2 (NEECO-2) and First Bukidnon Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FIBECO) for syndicated estafa at the Department of Justice.

The charged INEC officials had allegedly embezzled ₱118 million from the cooperative’s Employees Retirement Fund.

Those from NEECO-2 officials had allegedly misappropriated ₱250 million from retirement and internally generated funds.

FIBECO had allegedly bought land for ₱11.55 million, ₱6 million of which ended up in its sacked general manager’s bank account.

A news report recently focused on a meeting between NEA administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda and officials of the Asian Development Bank to explore new funding for hard-up electric cooperatives.

Oh, when will we ever learn that electric cooperatives stand in harm’s way?  That more funds do not mean more fun except for their high officials who still think they are above the law?

It has already been almost 56 years since August 4, 1969 when rural electrification began with the implementation of the National Electrification Administration Act (RA 6038) “to foster the creation and growth of cooperatives as a practical vehicle for prompting self-reliance and harnessing people power towards the attainment of economic development and social justice.”

The private initiative shown by Primelectric, owned by billionaire Enrique K. Razon, ought to be replicated nationwide.

On the premise that success speaks for itself, it is worth mentioning that when MORE Power took over the previous distribution utility in Iloilo City in 2020, it had 62,000 customers.  Now, after only five years, it has more than 100,000.

Under a new franchise law (RA 11918), it is expanding to Passi City and 15 towns of Iloilo province.

Primelectric has assumed a 70 percent stake of Bohol Light Co. Inc. in Tagbilaran.  The remaining 30% belongs to the provincial government of Bohol.

Incidentally, all three aforementioned thriving distribution utilities – MORE Power, Negros Power and Bohol Light – have Roel Z. Castro as president and chief executive officer.

“Time management,” Castro told this writer when asked how he budgets his time for work on weekdays and for family in Quezon City on weekends.