Sheena Duazo, spokesperson of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Southern Mindanao, said once Daneco falls into the hands of a private corporation, its main concern would no longer be in the service to its consumers “but for business and profit.”
By ALEX D. LOPEZ
Davao Today
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The recent move of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to put the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) back under its control worries groups here, saying, this is “a prelude to privatization.”
Rodel Arquiza, convener of the Save Daneco Movement (Sadamo), scored NEA, an agency under the Department of Energy, as he claimed that these agencies are “trusted by PNoy to implement his 3Ps, the Public-Private Partnership program.”
In a press briefing here Tuesday, Arquiza said that the interest of Aboitiz Corporation, a private business entity, in Daneco remains, “Mao na karon nga ginaduso sa NEA nga kuhaon niya og balik ang Daneco (This is why NEA is pushing to get Daneco back).”
He added that the 49,000 member-consumers of Daneco have already voted to place Daneco under the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) during a referendum last May.
Sheena Duazo, spokesperson of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Southern Mindanao, said once Daneco falls into the hands of a private corporation, its main concern would no longer be in the service to its consumers “but for business and profit.”
In a statement, Bayan disclosed the accumulated shares of the member-consumers of Daneco amounting to PHP 87 million “needs to be accounted for.”
“Daneco has become a milking cow of corrupt members of the Board, management and NEA,” Bayan said.
Bayan said that “other than making the power coop as source of corruption and onerous Vat (value added tax) revenues of the Aquino government, keeping Daneco under NEA control and denying the people of their right to have its own cooperative is a sinister scheme to push for its privatization.”
Bayan has urged the Daneco power consumers to unite and participate in various forms of protests to pressure the Aquino government to heed the demand of the majority of the consumers to put Daneco under the CDA and push for a genuine electric power cooperative.
Meanwhile, Ariel Casilao, Executive Vice President of the Makabayan Coalition, expressed dismay over the lack of decisive action from the Aquino government to finally resolve the conflict in Daneco. “Even the DOE has shown no recognition to the result of the recent referendum,” he added.
Grand design
Casilao also raised an impression that the continued inaction of the government to resolve the problem is aimed to portray that Daneco is conflict-ridden.
“Most likely, in the end,” Casilao said “if these conflicts will worsen, the President himself will take-over and control Daneco and invite a partner from private entities to come in.”
If this is the grand design of the national government, he added, member-consumers of Daneco must assert to defend their stake in the cooperative.
“Unfortunately, as dictated by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the government allows big private corporations to control the generation, transmission and eventually the distribution of electricity,” Casilao said. (Alex D. Lopez/davaotoday.com)
