'Power grab' to hound electric cooperative?

BANGUED, Abra  – An official of the Abra Electric Cooperative on Monday said a "power grab" is imminent at the Abra Electric Cooperative, following the  move to create an ad hoc crisis intervention committee by the Abra provincial board.

Already in the drawing board is an ad hoc committee to be created purportedly to assist Abra governor Eustaquio Bersamin in resolving the electricity crisis in the northern province allegedly spawned by financial distress in the past months and caused a 27-hour black-out last December and power cut-off notices from Abreco’s supplier --  Aboitiz Power Renewables Inc. (APRI).

Loreto Seares Jr., Abreco general manager, said the move is illegal and will be deemed as “thumbing their noses on the respective charters of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA), and abrogating upon themselves the mandate of the Department of Energy (DOE).”

Abreco, a 47,000 member-consumer cooperative is registered since 2012 at the CDA.

The ad hoc crisis management team, which would be led  Bersamin, is being proposed by Provincial Board member Allen Bachiller to end the crisis in the province in six months or so.

According to the proposal, Abreco's failure to pay its debts caused "public discomfort, business losses, paralysis of public and private transactions and other different economic and social consequences in the distraction of power supply” in Abra.

The continued failure of Abreco to pay its debts also poses a threat to the stability of supply of electric service to the consumers  in Abra.

La Paz town mayor Joseph Sto Nino Bernos confirmed the on going talks about the crisis management team being proposed to answer the woes besetting the province.

“We sought the governor to move to resolve the issue,”  said Bernos, who is the president of the town mayor’s league of Abra.

Seares said such move “might be setting an alarming precedence in big government that kills the private sector and stifles the growth and development of empowered civil society organizations.”

Their intention to take matters into his own hands, he said, “runs counter to the established laws of the land.”

Bersamin has denied that he is abusing his power by intervening into the affairs of the cooperative.
 
The proposal  will be discussed  Tuesday (January 15) for the third and final reading at the Abra Sangunniang Panlalawigan. - Artemio A. Dumlao