By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Power Watch secretary-general Wennie Sancho said over the weekend that the protest-rally spearheaded by the Responsible Supervisors and Confidential Union of Employees against the proposed Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between Central Negros Cooperative (Ceneco) and MORE Power Corp was a ploy to put the JVA in a bad light.
Sancho said the move was “out of their fear that they may not retain their supervisory and confidential positions, including their excessive salaries, fat bonuses and allowances in confusing abundance.”
He added that “without fear of contradiction, it is very clear that their opposition against the JVA is to protect their own vested interest and not that of the consumers as they had claimed.”
“They had already made a conclusion that the JVA is detrimental to the consumers basing on their ‘gist’, even if they had not read the terms and conditions of the proposed JVA,” he further said.
Sancho said that the protesters are like the prophets of doom, involved in a “guessing game” based on their own misunderstanding of the JVA “because of their insecurities in their security of tenure as middle management workers.”
He further said that “these Ceneco apologists are masquerading themselves as consumer advocates which could be an act of hypocrisy according to some observers.”
“We respect the rights of the people to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances, particularly if it involves moral and legal issues,” he said adding that “unfortunately, their declaration that the JVA is detrimental is a sweeping conclusion of an agreement that is to be debated and to be drafted yet.”
He said further that speculative analysis is dangerous if “we had not seen the JVA to determine if it is sufficient in form and substance.”
Sancho said that Power Watch agrees with Ceneco management that the opposition against the JVA is premature and baseless.
He stressed that Power Watch Negros is open to the JVA as long as it is intended to advance the welfare of the consumers.
“But we will be the first to reject it if it is grossly disadvantageous to the consumers,” he pointed out.
Contracts like the JVA should be aboveboard and not violate the law to be acceptable to us, he added.
“If this upcoming JVA is intended to rehabilitate and overhaul the power infrastructure of Ceneco in order to level up the technical operation of Ceneco as the platform of the JVA in applying the state-of-the-art technologies and gadgets in order to correct the dismal failure of Ceneco in providing affordable, reliable and efficient power supply, we will not interpose any objection against the JVA,” he added.
He pointed out that those who are opposing the JVA, are missing the point that it could put up a robust distribution system with maximum tolerance to causes of unintended power outages.
Those who are opposing the JVA are against progress and development, he stressed.
Sancho appealed “Let us provide an atmosphere that is conducive for the JVA by actively participating in the decision-making process to provide a bright future for our children.”
“The next generation of consumers will blame us if we had failed to provide them with a bright tomorrow by being apathetic in deciding on vital issues like the JVA,” he added.
