Consumers organize to protect power co-ops

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Big players in the power industry are eyeing to buy out the country’s most viable rural electric cooperatives and the move could compromise the bid to energize remote villages in the next few years, an official of the Electric Consumers Advocacy of the Philippines said.

Edicio de la Torre, Ecap national convenor, said next year’s elections could drastically alter the landscape for rural electrification as it could provide the vehicle for lawmakers to pass measures sympathetic to profit-oriented corporations.

“That’s why we formed the Ecap to mobilize electric consumers in the provinces to see to it that rural [electrification] would not be sacrificed,” he said.

De la Torre, a former priest and political detainee, spoke about the future of rural electric cooperatives in the country during the Multi-Sectoral Electric Advisory Council (MSEAC) and Rural Electric Cooperative Association (Reca) general assembly at the Benguet State University here on Saturday.

De la Torre declined to name these big players but said they were eyeing 20 of the 119 electric cooperatives belonging to the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (Philreca) because of their good performance.

“The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) is one of the cooperatives that had caught the attention of prospective investors,” he said.

He said the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) was laudable since it instituted reforms in the energy industry.

But the law has also opened opportunities for companies to take interest in buying rural cooperatives. –Delmar Cariño, Inquirer Northern Luzon