BAGUIO CITY – Prolonged power outages in Baguio and Benguet are expected to prevail following the inability of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) to timely settle its accumulated power bills with its supplier, TEAM Energy, due to frozen funds by its depository banks.
BENECO general manager Engr. Melchor S. Licoben warned that total power outages are inevitable once its power supplier will enforce the provision in their contract for the imposition of the prescribed penalty in the unpaid power bills that will lead to disconnection of power supply once no concrete action will be done to settle such ballooning obligations.
He claimed that its various depository banks decided to unilaterally change the signatories of its existing accounts to other signatories belonging to another camp and that BENECO could no longer draw the needed funds to pay its power bills with TEAM Energy.
Earlier, BENECO Licoben and board chairman lawyer Esteban Somngi sought the assistance of the local government to compel the electric cooperative’s depository banks to release the frozen funds for the same to be able to pay its obligations with its power supplier among others to avoid its power supply from being cut off that will lead to total power outages in the Baguio and Benguet areas.
Licoben disclosed that BENECO is already in default on the payment of its power bill with TEAM Energy by more than P30.6 million. Further, BENECO is also in default on the payment of its power bill in May by around P67 million.
He added that for the succeeding months, there is a big possibility that BENECO will not be able to settle its power bill amounting to more than P245 million monthly that might compel the power supplier to cut off the power supply that will lead to total power outages in the future.
The BENECO official claimed that its various depository banks unilaterally decided to change the signatories to its bank accounts to another set of signatories that is why the electric cooperative is no longer in control of its funds. Some banks decided to freeze its accounts following issues that were raised on the legitimacy of the general manager with the decision of the controversial National Electrification Administration–Board of Administrators (NEA-BOA) to appoint an unqualified applicant to the said position.
Licoben explained that it is good that BENECO’s power supplier is not enforcing the provision in their contract that there will be a surcharge on the unpaid power bills with collatilia for possible disconnection of power supply once the electric cooperative continues to be in default in the payment of its accumulated power bills.
According to him, BENECO questioned the decision of the banks to unilaterally change the signatories of its accounts and subsequently freeze the same due to the misrepresentations of other purported officials of the electric cooperatives wanting to forcibly takeover the management despite the pendency of a case before the Court of Appeals (CA) that questioned the decision of the NEA-Board of Administrators to appoint an unqualified and not commended applicant to the said position.
Aside from its inability to pay its power supplier for several months due to the frozen bank accounts, BENECO is not also able to implement its corporate social responsibility projects due to the prolonged leadership impasse which is now nearly a year old.