Power Watch Negros, a consumer “watchdog,” commended Roel Castro, president and CEO of Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC or Negros Power) for cleansing the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) of anomalous, illegal and anti-consumer practices, a press release from Power Watch said.
Power Watch Negros secretary-general Wennie Sancho, in a statement, said that the initial measures are strong indicators that NEPC is serious in its rehabilitation program when it will take over the operation of CENECO, by restoring it into a state of efficiency and good management as a distribution utility (DU).
As one of the resource persons during the Negros Island Power Forum on March 20, Castro revealed that in their joint survey with CENECO, a total of 80,000 electrical meters have been discovered to have no seals, and an additional 5,000 to 6,000 are illegal connections within the francise area of CENECO.
The illegal connections resulted in a 12 percent overall loss for CENECO, he said.
Sancho asserted that it is an injustice to the consumers who are promptly paying their bills because they absorb the power theft or system loss. “We are being made to pay for the power supply that we did not use.”
“Power Watch Negros was vindicated in its claim that there were gross negligence on the part of CENECO to protect the rights of the consumers. It is a tragedy that those CENECO employees who were against the JVA, the NEPC franchise and privatization are among those who are involved in this dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming as CENECO employees. They have no right and they do not deserve to be working with NEPC if performance will be the criteria. There should be accountability on this issue. The supervisors and the department heads should be made to explain about this fiasco,” he said.
“Were these concerned employees looking the other way to ignore unsealed meters and electric jumpers? The time for reform and rehabilitation in DUs and ECs were long overdue. These institutions imbued with public interest had become symbols of graft and corruption. In order to meet the rising demand in the power market due to massive economic development, privatization of DUs and ECs are necessary with the rapid expansion of technologies.”
There is an urgent need to upgrade grids because electricity is expanding as the backbone of our economy,” Sancho added in his statement.
(News & photo courtesy by PWPR via The Visayan Daily Star)