Baguio City – The 5th Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) nullified the National Electrification Administration – Board of Administrator’s appointment of former Presidential Communication Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Paz Rafael as the general manager of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) sometime in May 2022.
In a unanimous decision handed down on July 9, 2024, the CA sustained all the arguments of Engr. Melchor S. Licoben that aside from the fact that Rafael is not qualified for the general manager position, the NEA-BOA have no power to make the said appointment nor it can force the BENECO Board of Directors to issue a resolution confirming the assailed appointment it previously issued, otherwise, it will make the board as its rubber stamp.
Further, the CA declared as null and void NEA-BOA’s resolution suspending the members of the BENECO Board of Directors and Engr. Licoben based on the complaint of Rafael when they refused to recognize her appointment.
The appellate court also sustained Licoben’s argument that only the Board of Directors of any electric cooperative could appoint its general manager and NEA’s participation is only to vet the applicant and submit the list of qualified candidates to the Board of Directors who shall choose from said list on who to appoint like what the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) performs for all applicants to any position on the judiciary from the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) Judge to the Supreme Court Justice.
However, the CA claimed that the JBC could not appoint a Judge or Justice but the President can and as such, like the JBC, the NEA cannot just submit the name of a single applicant to the Board of Directors because that is tantamount to making the appointment themselves.
While the very contentious issue sharply divided the BENECO member-consumers in Baguio and Benguet as well as the elected officials, lawyer Lauro Gacayan, Licoben’s legal counsel, was elated that his friendship with Rafael’s battery of lawyers was not affected.
When the new administration took over, the NEA had to repeat the selection process strictly adhering to the prescribed guidelines that had been crafted for the purpose that resulted in the issuance of the appointment of Engr. Licoben as the full pledged BENECO general manager.
The previous BENECO leadership impasse caused the sudden downgrading of BENECO from a Class AAA electric cooperative to Class C before NEA elevated its status to Class AA recently.
Records show that the BENECO board of Directors unanimously appointed Engr. Licoben as the general manager in lieu of the retirement of the late Gerado P. Verzosa effective May 1, 2020 by virtue of Resolution No. 2020-090 that was transmitted to the NEA-BOA for confirmation.
Unfortunately, the NEA-BOA failed to act on the said resolution and other related resolutions that were passed but instead unilaterally decided to open the application for BENECO general manager and accept the application of Rafael even if there was no actual position to be applied for in the first place. By Dexter A. See
