Ceneco willing to listen to consumers’ groups opposing Sept. 25 AGMA

The management of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CENECO) is willing to listen to a consumers’ group opposing the holding of the Annual General Membership Assembly (AGMA) on Setember 25, 2021.

CENECO Project Supervisor and Acting General Manager Atty. Danny L. Pondevilla is referring to the leaders of the newly-formed Power Advocates Consumers’ Council (PACC) who said during a press conference that it is not safe to hold an AGMA and that health protocols will be violated with the needed number of member-consumer-owners to have a quorom.

Pondevilla, who is also the current general manager of Manapla-based Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (NONECO), said Ceneco’s AGMA is long overdue because, he said it was supposed to be held last June but was postponed due to the Covid pandemic.

He said AGMA is held to update member-consumer-owners (MCOs) of the situation of an electric cooperative, inform them of the cooperative’s accomplishments, and enlighten them of current issues that need to be clarified.

Pondevilla said he will be inviting the leaders of the consumers’ groups to listen to their contentions and to also apprise them of the AGMA’s importance.

The Ceneco acting GM also told newsmen the AGMA might be postponed again if consumer groups opposing its holding on Sept. 25 can have compelling reasons.

PACC Concerns

During the press conference at the Negros Press Club in Bacolod City Thursday, the newly-organized Power Advocates Consumers’ Council (PACC) was formally launched.

PACC is composed of Power Watch Negros represented by its Secretary-General Wennie Sancho, Alliance of Concerned Transport In Occidental Negros (ACTON) led by its chairperson Teddy Macainan; and Consumers Alliance for Reform (CAR) headed by its president Rodolfo Song.

The three consumer’s groups, in a joint resolution, oppose the planned holding of the 43rd AGMA of CENECO.

In the resolution signed as PACC, the group said that the holding of the assembly “poses a danger to the health and lives of the consumers as the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing.”

Citing Delta variant in Bacolod, PACC says the holding of such event could trigger the further spread of COVID-19.

“The holding of the AGMA is unnecessary, impractical, and it is not indispensable to the continuous operation of CENECO as a distribution utility providing electricity to consumers,” it added.

The group also said there is an urgent need to amend the constitution and by-laws of CENECO before the holding of the AGMA in order to safeguard the rights and welfare of the consumers.

In answering queries from the media, PACC leaders said holding a virtual AGMA for some 200,000 MCOs is impractical. “The manner of selecting a few who will attend the AGMA is highly questionable, as it will discriminate the consumers who are critical… It will not be a general assembly but a gathering of pseudo-consumer groups…,” they said.

The resolution also said that even CENECO board member Fr. Ernie Larida requested for a postponement of the Memorandum of Understanding between Power Watch and CENECO citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason.

“The mothballed signing involved only four people. Now Fr. Larida is joining the bandwagon for the holding of the AGMA that will involve more than 50 people? This is contrary if not inconsistent with his previous stand on the issue of pandemic,” they said.

PACC leaders also said they will launch a consumer complaint’s desk, which will accept complaints from the public related to Ceneco.* (Arman P. Toga)