By Mae Singuay
Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and the Power Watch Negros Advocates (PWNA) encouraged member-consumer-owners (MCOs) of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) to participate in the plebiscite for the ratification of the joint venture agreement (JVA), as it resumes this weekend.
“I am encouraging them to go out and participate in the plebiscite,” Benitez said.
“Ginaayo ko gani sa tanan nga masugata ko, kun pwede tapuson ta na ini by Sunday. Let’s all vote this weekend, so that we can get going,” he added.
On August 8, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) issued a memorandum for the resumption of the plebiscite scheduled on August 19, 20, 26, and 27, and September 2 and 3, after the cleansing of the MCOs list.
From the initial 192,000 MCOs, 177,737 are eligible to vote for the JVA.
Meanwhile, Benitez said the city government last week put up “proxy booths” to accommodate MCOs that have no time to go to their designated precincts during the plebiscite.
The proxy booths are located at Bacolod City Government Center and at several malls in the city.
Likewise, PWNA secretary general Wennie Sancho is urging all qualified MCOs to go out and vote in the plebiscite.
“We should go out and vote on the plebiscite regarding the JVA, so that the desire of the majority of the consumers shall be determined,” Sancho said.
He added that the plebiscite’s goal is to broaden the base of the consumers’ participation in the democratic process and to afford ample opportunities for Ceneco consumers to express their views on important matters such as the JVA, affecting their rights and welfare.
“The device of the majority is a practical rule of law based on reason and experience. The right to vote is both a privilege and a duty which every consumer must perform,” he said.
The JVA, entered between Ceneco and Primelectric Holdings, Inc./Negros Electric Power Corporation, will become effective once the majority, or 50 percent plus one, of Ceneco’s MCOs will ratify it in a plebiscite, through “yes” votes.
The agreement seeks to improve power distribution service in the cooperative’s franchise areas in the cities of Bago, Talisay and Silay; and the municipalities of Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto; and capital Bacolod City.
The scheduled plebiscite in July was postponed after local chief executives in the franchise areas requested NEA to temporarily suspend the plebiscite and to verify the list of MCOs to ensure its sanctity before the process is allowed to proceed.
The mayors said they were convinced that this is the only way to ensure that the plebiscite reflects the real choice of the bonafide member-consumers of Ceneco and to properly decide on the JVA’s fate./MS, WDJ