LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Four more municipalities joined the increasing number of local governments and private organizations supporting the earlier legislation passed by the La Trinidad municipal council requesting the interim board of Directors of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) to call for the conduct of regular district elections to allow duly elected members of the board to serve the interest of the electric cooperative and the consumers.
The municipal council of Kabayan passed Resolution No. 342-23 ardently supporting Resolution No. 199-2023 of the La Trinidad municipal council, stating among others that La Trinidad officials were correct in declaring that electing the regular members of the BENECO board would certainly resolve related issues and questions affecting the operation and management of the electric cooperative.
The Kabayan municipal council underscored that it is a fact that BENECO as a cooperative registered with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) is owned by the member-consumer-owners (MCOs), thus, their voices must be heard and respected in the election of the members of the regular board.
Under Resolution No. 2023-110, the Kapangan municipal council also supported the aforesaid La Trinidad municipal council resolution as it is high time to call for the election of the regular members of the BENECO board to properly represent their own districts as they will be elected by the consumers themselves.
On the other hand, the Bakun municipal council also passed Resolution No. 98-2023 also bestowing the strong support of the people and officialdom of the municipality to the ongoing clamor to call for the BENECO district elections of the members of the board.
The said resolution shared the sentiments of the different municipalities as the same mainly intends for the immediate resolution of issues and questions affecting the operation and management of one of the country’s top performing electric cooperatives.
For its part, the Kibungan municipal council passed Resolution No. 067-2023 that supported the intention of La Trinidad municipal council Resolution NO. 199-2023.
The Kibungan municipal council agreed with the earlier sentiments expressed in the La Trinidad council resolution to ur4ge the National Electrification Administration (NEA), BENECO and the interim Board of Directors to immediately call for the election of the regular members of the board to put to rest issues on the proper representation of the consumers with the highest governing body of the electric cooperative.
I reiterated that BENECO should be governed by democratically elected members of the board as what was intended by its existing constitution and by-laws.
Earlier, the municipal councils of Sablan, Tuba, Itogon and Mankayan passed similarly worded resolutions to reflect the overall sentiments of the consumers within BENECO’s franchise on the need for NEA and the interim board to call for the conduct of election and selection of regular members of the board although there are no pressing issues that were raised against the interim members of the board of Directors, except the fact that they were not selected and elected by the consumers in the various districts.