BACOLOD City – Twenty labor groups under the General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) support the proposed joint venture agreement (JVA) between Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and Ignite Power – a sister company of MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power).
Their support was expressed in Resolution No. 002, series of 2023 released yesterday as they marked Labor Day at the Negros Press Club building.
The proposed JVA would be a lifesaving mechanism to improve the operation and services of Ceneco to serve and advance the welfare of consumers, part of the resolution read.
The labor groups noted that Ceneco “failed in its task to rehabilitate and overhaul its most basic facilities, particularly the transformers substations and power lines which are literally overheating to full capacity resulting to huge system loss at the expense of the consumers.”
“We in the labor sector have high expectations on this JVA as it would harness modern technology and state-of-the- art gadgets using geographical information system with a scheme to reconfigure the system when there are sudden and unscheduled interruptions,” according to the labor groups.
MORE Power is the sole power distributor in Iloilo City. It has dramatically improved the delivery of power to Ilonggo households and business, and even managed to lower electricity rates.
Ceneco has more than 214,000 member-consumers in its franchise areas of Bacolod City, Bago City, Talisay City, and Silay City, and the Negros Occidental municipalities of Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto.
According to GAWA, electricity consumers in the franchise area of Ceneco have been suffering for decades from all forms of inconvenience due to unscheduled power interruptions, brownouts and inefficient services.
Wennie Sancho, secretary general of GAWA, said Ceneco dismally failed to provide affordable, reliable and efficient power supply which is the foundation of economic development.
“A robust power supply will attract more investors, which in turn will create job opportunities and income that will pump rime the economy and strengthen the purchasing power of the workers,” said Sancho./PN
