POWER DEAL. A help desk is set up to disseminate information on the plebiscite for the ratification of the proposed joint venture agreement between Central Negros Electric Cooperative and Primelectric Holdings Inc./Negros Electric Power Corp in this photo taken last month. As of Friday (Sept. 1, 2023), the National Electrification Administration has terminated the remaining voting period dates of Sept. 2 and 3 after the majority of the consumer members have already voted “yes”. (PNA Bacolod file photo)
Cesafinews | Voters approve the Bacolod power modernization agreement | BACOLOD CITY – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has ended the plebiscite voting for the ratification of the proposed joint venture deal between the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and Primelectric Holdings Inc. (PHI)/Negros Electric Power Corporation (NEPC).
This is because most consumer-members had already voted “yes” before the polls were supposed to close this weekend.
Vic Alvaro, who is in charge of the project for the NEA, said on Friday that Ceneco had been told to do a final review of the combined returns and check the certification before sending it to the NEA.
“The times for voting on September 2 and 3 have been canceled because they are no longer needed. “They haven’t given us the official certification or the documents yet,” he said in an interview on the radio.
In a letter from August 30, NEA head Antonio Mariano Almeda gave the Ceneco Board of Directors permission to end the plebiscite. This happened on Thursday.
The cities of Bacolod, Bago, Silay, and Talisay, as well as the towns of Don Salvador Benedicto and Murcia, are all covered by Ceneco.
On August 27, the sixth day of the referendum, Ceneco released numbers showing that 98,591 votes, or 55.53 percent, had been counted for “yes” to JVA.
To get 50 percent plus one vote from the 177,737 Ceneco member-consumers who could vote, only 88,870 votes were needed.
The process of ratification is part of the rules set by the NEA after the planned deal between Ceneco board president Jojit Yap and PHI president and chief executive officer Roel Castro on June 3 to modernize and improve power distribution in its franchise area was signed.
Through a joint venture company called the NEPC, the deal is meant to add money and cash to the electric cooperative’s distribution system.
Arnel Lapore, who is working as Ceneco’s general manager, said that under the JVA, Ceneco will own 30 percent of NEPC, which is worth more than PHP800 million, and PHI will own 70 percent, which is worth PHP1.4 billion.(via PNA)
About the Author
