Beneco, NCIP, IPMR, Asin hydro concerns

 BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY –  Top National Electric Administration (NEA) officials headed by Emmanuel Juaneza, and their Baguio minions under former Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Marie Rafael must be squirming in their seats. This includes their sinister puppet masters – rumored to be from way down south.
    Top issuances by the NEA under its memo 2021-055 and NEA memo 2021-056 – were declared null and void in a decision penned by Judge Efren M. Cacatian on June 13, 2022 on a similar case of the Isabela Electric Cooperative Inc. (ISELCO 1).
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NEA memo 2021-055 deals with the revised policy on selection, hiring, termination of service/suspension for general managers of electric cooperative (4th revision), while NEA memo 2021-056 is on revised policy guidelines on conduct of examination and interview for applicants to the position of general managers of electric cooperatives.
    Isabela Electric Cooperative Inc. (ISELCO 1), through its Board president Presley C. De Jesus, alleged that NEA and its board of administrators committed “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of and in excess of their jurisdiction” when they arrogated unto itself the power to select, hire, and appoint a general manager of an electric cooperative through the aforementioned NEA memoranda.
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In Baguio City, the question of NEA’s appointment of Marie Rafael as general manager of Benguet Electric Cooperative even if engineer Melchor Licoben was earlier appointed by the Beneco board of directors is still a question the Court of Appeals has to rule on.
    Licoben has all the qualifications that Rafael lacks.  
    Licoben, is holding office as Beneco general manager at the Beneco main office in South Drive along with seven other members of the board of directors even if the NEA and its minions had been trying to take over the top and well-performing electric cooperative.
    Beneco member-consumers-owners (MCOs) are still vigilant, reason Rafael and four disgraced board of directors fired by MCOs cannot take over the power cooperative.
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The Office of the Ombudsman under Samuel Martirez ordered the dismissal from service of Roland Calde, former head of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples-Cordillera Administrative Region for grave misconduct.
    The Ombudsman also ordered cancelation of Calde's eligibility, forfeiture of his retirement benefits and perpetual disqualification from government service.
    The decision, which petitioner received on June 24, stemmed from two complaints filed by Roger Sinot Sr. about selection of Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) in the Baguio City Council.  Calde at present heads the NCIP regional office in Central Luzon.
    In her March 29 decision, Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer Lauren Divino-Sudweste said there was "substantial evidence" to hold Calde liable for grave misconduct regarding the first complaint.
Sinot accused Calde of grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, and ignorance of the law in his first complaint filed in June 2017.
      Sinot had actually been selected as Baguio IPMR in 2016 by IP chiefs all over the region, but he was not able to assume his post due to reported maneuverings of some NCIP officials until a court ruled an injunction.
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Until now, some officials and those interested in his post are reportedly trying to derail Sinot from assuming as IPMR. Talks have it that a commissioner is pulling the strings among local NCIP officials to follow his wishes considering Sinot knows a lot of things like disposition of ancestral lands reportedly being twisted by powers that be.       
    For one, representatives of indigenous peoples here opposed an assembly set by the NCIP Baguio office to choose another IPMR this week saying Sinot had been selected earlier and that all necessary processes had been followed.
    Sources said local NCIP was in essence twisting processes by calling for another selection for another IPMR.      In a letter to NCIP chairman Allen C. Capuyan dated June 30, 2022, IP representatives said: “We bring to you our opposition to the Notice issued by Urbano B. Mirante, DMO V. NCIP Baguio City Officer for a general assembly, to be held at The Avong Ibaloy Heritage Garden, Burnham Park. Baguio City is a melting-pot of all Cordillera ethno-linguistic tribes of which we find the notice of IPMR selection exclusive rather than inclusive. Our opposition is mainly based on the fact that the first selected IPMR to the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Baguio has yet to assume office and so what is the use of conducting another selection? Let us not create or establish a very bad precedent where the chosen IPMR cannot sit to represent the indigenous peoples in a decision-making body due merely to power play by individuals who are clearly anti indigenous peoples.”
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The Baguio City government is finalizing settlement of issues besetting Asin mini-hydro power plants to ensure it will not encounter problems once it offers these plants to private companies interested to improve the facilities.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Pena said the city has no problem on ownership of Plant No. 2 because of a previous court ruling the city government owns the property where this plant has been established.
    However, he admitted problems on ownership by the city lies in Plant No. 1 where 99 percent of the area occupied by the plant had been tax-declared by the Palos family, and in Plant No. 3 where the property occupied by the plant is owned by the municipality of Tuba, Benguet.
    The city administrator said in the case of the Palos family, initial talks with representatives have shown the family is interested to allow the city to use the same for operation of the power plant.
    Dela Pena said in the case of Tuba municipality, the interest of the municipal officials is how much the municipal government can get as share of the benefits once the plants will be operational.
    Dela Pena requested the City Social Welfare and Development Office to conduct social scoping in areas traversed by lines of the mini-hydro power plants to validate whether or not there will be additional claimants not included in previous list of claimants earlier compensated by the city government.
    He claimed the city government will prepare terms of reference for public bidding on rehabilitation and upgrading of the power plants once issues have been finally addressed.
    He said this will allow the city government to present to interested companies there are no more obstacles to make the facilities operational.
    The power plants were built during American colonial time.
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Despite Dela Pena’s statements, it may not be easy for the city government to re-operate or to bid out operation of the hydro facilities. The Tuba local government had certified the Baguio City government has no papers to prove it owns even one square inch of land in the town.
    Ancestral land owners where the power lines traverse said they are also poised to file cases if they will not be consulted on the matter.

    This, after an Isabela judge ruled the NEA cannot appoint a general manager of an electric cooperative as this mandate rests on an EC’s board of directors.