BAGUIO CITY – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) recently designated a ranking official of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) to assist and help its neighboring electric cooperatives (ECs) in the Cordillera, specifically the Kalinga-Apayao Electric Cooperative (KAELCO), to improve its efficiency and effectivity in providing its increasing number of consumers quality power through the reliability of its distribution system.
In his Memorandum to the BENECO Board of Directors, BENECO general manager Gerardo P. Verzosa informed the cooperative’s policy-making body that it is important to grant the request of NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong by allowing one of its personnel, Engr. Ricardo S. Pallogan, one of BENECO’s top performing department managers, to be detailed as NEA project supervisor in KAELCO in line with the concept of ‘coop to coop’ assistance.
AS NEA detailed project supervisor, Verzoa explained that Engr. Pallogan will only attend the meetings of the KAELCO Board of Directors scheduled every first and third Friday of every month to provide the needed technical advise to the cooperative’s officials and employees in administering the affairs of the supposed ailing EC.
Earlier, NEA Administrator Masongsong requested BENECO to extend assistance to its neighboring ECs in the Cordilleras that are not reportedly performing well and one of the ECs mentioned by the Administrator in his request that needs assistance is the KAELCO.
BENECO has been one of the top performing ECs in the country for over a decade now having recently been given citations for its ability to maintain a single digit systems loss, maintain its class AAA classification, sustained its 100 percent collection efficiency, continuously extended assistance to other ECs in calamity-stricken areas for the immediate restoration of power to consumers, maintain affordable power rates for consumers, good working environment for its headquarters, gained the recognition for Verzosa as one of the outstanding general managers in the country among other significant awards and citations given by concerned local governments and government regulatory agencies.
Verzosa pointed out Engr. Pallogan is the appropriate technical person from BENECO who will be designated as NEA-designated project supervisor for KAELCO because he traces his roots from Kalinga, thus, he is obviously aware of the prevailing situation in the area, the status of the EC in the place and the possible solutions to the problems being currently encountered by the EC that resulted to its being classified as one of the ECs in the region that is not actually performing well.
He expressed optimism that KAELCO management and the members of the Board of Directors will provide the NEA-designated project supervisor for the EC the needed briefing for him to have the information on the current problems being encountered by the cooperative and for him to render the appropriate technical advise for possible implementation that will result to the drastic improvement in the status of the EC so that it will not remain as one of the ECs that are not performing in the region as classified by the NEA.
Engr. Pallongan will start rendering his services to KAELCO as NEA-designated project supervisor after the members of the BENECO Board of Directors approved the request of the NEA Administrator upon the recommendations of Verzosa.
By HENT
