Service and profit; revisiting Banayakeo

 LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

ATOK, Benguet -- Around 29 years ago, I joined a dialogue between community elders and Atty. Ronald M. Cosalan at Banayakeo Elementary School. A revisit to Sitio Banayakeo in Barangay Poblacion, Atok last week was quite memorable, thanks to Kit Gonzales for the invite.
    The wobbly and unpleasantly rough ride on stony and unpaved trails in those years were noticeably gone now since most of the 12-km farm-to-market road was already cemented. I understand, it took some time to concrete the road because it passed through private lands.
    The Pine trees, sayote and vegetable farms are still around. Additional residential farm houses that looked new were built along the road and modern SUVs are more conspicuous. Of course, these are good indications that the lives of farmers there have changed for the better.
    The school was also renamed from the former Banayakeo Elementary School to Mauro Laruan Elementary School, apparently the namesake of the man who donated the land where the school now stood, I was told.
    I was again at Banayakeo last week to witness a simple switch-on ceremony of the Sitio Electrification Program of the government implemented by the Benguet Electric Cooperative in its effort to energize two sub-sitios Agpay and Codating.   
    Here, the complexity of managing a public utility engaged in distributing electricity to rural areas was explained.     At least two sides of the issue should be considered seriously by the general public.
    When it comes to managing utilities particularly in terms of providing water and electricity to consumers, they should be made aware if the management is providing genuine service or predominantly gaining huge profit.
    Dr. Peter M. Cosalan, the former general manager of Beneco underscored the insights on the management of electric cooperatives in comparison to privately-managed electric companies. There is a big difference between the two.
    Consider the cost of material to be used in the SEP of just a few houses, second only to the difficulty of hauling and putting up the electric poles and wires through kilometers of rugged terrain.
    For sub-sitios Agpay and Codating, at least 43 poles were erected and 3.4 kilometers of wires were lined and attached to energize only 11 households. This cost the government some P1.8 million.
    The return of investment of the amount would probably take 25 years to be recovered, according to former general manager Cosalan. However, ROI (return of investment) may not be realized in the form of cash but in terms of rural industrialization which is the spirit of the SEP as implemented by electric cooperatives.
    For privately-managed electric corporations involved in power generation, distribution and retail of electric services; consumers in far-flung sitios located in the boondocks do not expect to be energized especially if there are only five household applicants because no profit is gained from serving only a few houses.
    Meralco, the country’s largest electric distribution utility, has a franchise that covers 9,337 square kilometers including Metro Manila, the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal and Cavite, parts of Laguna, Quezon and Batangas and Pampanga.
    For sure, profit is ensured in such an electric franchise area that covers more flat lands as compared to the rugged topography served by electric cooperatives in the Cordillera. There are marginalized farmhouses in Central and Southern Luzon but these are not energized due to the absence of profit.    
    The Hedcor Group, a subsidiary company of Aboitiz Power, has been generating renewable energy from run-of-river hydropower systems since the early 80s. It operates around 22 hydropower plants located in rivers of Benguet, La Union and other provinces.
    But its operation is limited to just sucking energy from the local rivers and selling what it generates through the national grid. No matter how it promotes its “clean and renewable” energy, it cannot hide the fact that it is profiting from exploiting the indigenous communities’ rivers.
    Of course, the LGUs get a percentage share from the private company’s profits as provided by law. Although most often, we hear very interesting complaints of unfair or unbalanced percentage sharing. That is the problem when we allow private companies to operate our rivers and share a little profit, instead of the other way around.
    As we write, Beneco is celebrating 49 years of distributing electricity to a membership that rose to 140,000. Beneco still holds the torch as one of the electric cooperatives in the Philippines that collects the lowest power rates from its consumers following an increase in the generation cost due to high coal prices.
    Beneco employees under the leadership of Engr. Melchor S. Licoben are firm in their commitment to rural development through sitio electrification amid the management problem brought about by the interference of corrupt individuals.
    Beneco’s four former board of directors who turned against consumer-member-owners who elected them as their representative in the board in the first place should now be replaced by OICs, pending an election in the area they cover.