Stirrings in NONECO

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Servicing the electricity needs of the people of northern and northeastern Occidental Negros is Northern Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. that is based in Tortosa, Manapla. Its distance from Bacolod where media concentrates, NONECO has sort of been left out in the news and the scrutiny of the journalists. Its forerunner, VRESCO (Victorias-Manapla Rural Electric Cooperative), was more publicity conscious as the old CENECO. The electric cooperatives have learned that to avoid controversies is to shy away from media and thereby blind their members to what was going on in the cooperative. Unknowing, members cannot complain.

A member of the cooperative furnished me with a copy of a small undated leaflet addressed to the members of NONECO. It gave notice that starting December 01, 2018 the rates of services requested by the member were increased. The hike in the fees was authorized by the Board of Directors resolution No. 045, Series of 2018. According to this resolution, the reason for imposing higher fees was due to the “new salary scale, materials used, fuel cost and hourly basis rate.”

The leaflet is made available to the consumers at the coop’s office (allegedly they were not distributed) has a different justification. It mentions gas, mobility, labor cost, time allocated and others. What those others are nobody knows but only to the Technical Service Department that supposedly made the study and the Board.

We can surmise that “others” refers to the amount paid to whoever does the service or whatever since the term is open-ended. The need for increased rate can always find justification, but onerous rates cannot be imposed arbitrarily especially by an economic enterprise that calls the people who will be burdened by the additional financial cost as members, consumers and owners.

It is generally understood that in a cooperative a member is the owner but here NONECO emphasized that aside from their being members and consumers they are above all owners.  But being member-owners of an electric cooperative in the Philippines is a farce. The fact is that the members of this type of cooperative are not treated as owners should be. They are the cosmetics used by the martial law regime for government takeover of all electric utilities from private ownership and placed them under national control to be spread out to politicians.

The case of NONECO is classic. According to an ordinary member of that cooperative, the board decided on increased rates without consultation much less approval of the members who are supposed to be owners. Where can one find a situation where the owner is fleeced without its knowledge and consent?  Can one find a better farce?

Due to inflation, it is normal for any business enterprise to adjust its rates, fees or price, but the increased should be reasonable, and in a cooperative should be at least explained to the members and approved by them. Not in the case of NONECO in the rates it imposed in December 2018.

The Board approved, in toto what the Technical Services Department proposed. Inspection or staking fee for new residential consumers was increased from P30 to P170 while inspection/staking fee for subdivision and private line extension jumped from P30 to a hefty P2,200. Relocation of kWh meter increased from P15 to P350 and relocation rose from P125 to P370.

The cruelest increase is the reconnection from P60 to P170. I consider this increase as the unkindest of all because the ones that usually needed disconnection are the poor. Many of them could not pay their electric bills on time and had to be disconnected. NONECO is no better than a profit-oriented company when it should not be. They fleece the poor who are their members who needed help the most.

The NONECO Board and its personnel should know that a cooperative is a kind of a socialistic economic enterprise. Board members have not invested for its capitalization, but they are generously compensated for their labors.

Were these increases approved by the National Electrification Administration and the Energy Regulatory Commission? There is no indication of approval. The Board merely sent to NEA a copy for “information and reference.”

We can assume then the ERC was not informed nor had ERC and NEA approved the new rates. The NONECO members should raise this matter to ERC that has jurisdiction over rates and fees. Otherwise, their silence is deemed consent.