Baguio, Benguet LGUs air support to Beneco manager; PCOO exec wants position

By Delmar Carino and Alfred Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – All municipal governments of Benguet and Baguio City, through resolutions, aired their support to Melchor Licoben the newly appointed general manager of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco).

This, after a top official of the Presidential Communications Operations Office wrote a letter to President Duterte urging him to recommend or appoint the PCOO executive to sit as Beneco general manager, sources said.

This has raised alarm among member-consumers and employees of Beneco who said Licoben was more than qualified to hold the post even basing from regulations of the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

Memorandum No. 2017-035 of the NEA stipulates that an applicant as general manager of an electric company must have held the post as OIC (officer in charge) for at least six months and must have a bachelor’s degree in engineering from accredited schools like universities as electrical, mechanical, electronics or communications.

They asked the Northern Philippine Times not to name the PCOO official in the meantime so the executive would do some soul-searching and not pursue plans of heading the Beneco, considering that it needs to be led by somebody with the qualification, expertise and experience like Licoben particularly during these uncertain times of Covid-19 pandemic when the cooperative needs to be run efficiently.           

Licoben, an electrical engineer, was appointed by the Beneco’s board of directors May 21 as general manager. 

The Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (PHILRECA|), the umbrella organization of the country’s ECs, also passed a resolution on July 17 strongly supporting the appointment of Licoben as full time general manager of Beneco. 

Earlier, the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC), the largest media organization in the Cordillera, also passed a resolution throwing its support to the 52 year old GM who has served the Beneco close to 30 years already.

With Licoben’s leadership, Beneco is now expecting a surge in power demand as Baguio City and Benguet slowly crawls to the new normal.

Beneco is ready to marshal all its resources to hurdle all regulatory and industry demands for distribution utilities in the next few years. 

Licoben accepted on Tuesday the challenge hurled by the NEA for all the country’s 121 electric cooperatives (ECs) to piggyback on the national government’s thrust to let local economies absorb the influx of idled employees from the metropolis. 

Edgardo Masongsong, NEA administrator, keynoted the on line NEA-EC Strategic Thinking Conference from July 21-23 and said that the role of ECs have become more prominent today when the attention of national growth shifts to rural development.

“The mandate for ECs now must range from sitio energization to rural development and consumer empowerment,” he said.

Licoben, whose appointment by the EC’s board of directors,  said Beneco is studying the EC’s possible put up of a cooperative radio station and an electric cooperative bank.

Masongsong earlier encouraged the ECs to seriously consider the two options since, he said, it is high time the ECs must diversify their business to be able to survive and gain the loyalty of their consumers.

Licoben said he will bring the proposals to the board for consideration. “We are about to finish our mini hydro project in Buguias and we are ready to explore other alternatives,” he said. 

“We have tweaked our strategies to adopt to the change of times. We have finished our business continuity plan to respond to the adverse impact of the pandemic and certainly, the NEA recommendations are well within our radar,” he said.

Licoben added that the EC is also in the thick of completing the regulatory requirements for its proposed one megawatt solar facility in Tabaan Sur, Tuba, the first among Beneco’s solar projects that are in the pipeline.

Licoben said plans are afoot for ensuring the steady supply of electricity with less unscheduled power interruption to address the growing demand for power owing to the government’s Balik Beneco power rates for July were supposedly much lower compared to those of giant Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco).

Based on comparative data on the power rates of the electric cooperative and the power distribution utility, Beneco’s residential power rate for July was pegged at P7.99 per kilowatthour (kWh) compared to Meralco’s announced rate of P8.966 per kWh.

In June, Beneco’s residential power rate was P7.76 per kWh compared to the P8.72 per kWh of Meralco, the biggest power distribution utility in the country.

Local power industry sources said despite presence of numerous non-viable areas within the cooperative’s franchise area being provided with cheap and quality power through the facilities of the electric cooperative, Beneco was still able to offer cheap power rates to its 170,000 member-consumer-owners.

For over a decade now, it was able to maintain its status as one of the Class AAA electric cooperatives that continues to have one of the cheapest power rates among the 121 rural electric cooperatives and a number of power distribution utilities operating in different parts of the country.

Its aggressive implementation of the government’s rural electrification program has resulted in the 100 percent energization of Baguio City’s 128 barangay (villages) and the 140 barangays in Benguet.