BAGUIO CITY: The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco), reputedly one of the well-established electric cooperatives in the country, is facing a leadership crisis over an alleged endorsement by the Board of Administrators (BoA) of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) of a Malacañang aide to be the next general manager of the cooperative instead of a supposed veteran in the local power distribution industry.

A joint statement from the Beneco management and employees union questioned how the BoA processed applicants for the top cooperative post.

They, however, clarified they were not claiming the selection was rigged or tainted by fraud, only that the board grossly violated its recruitment rules based on factual antecedents.

Without demeaning or diminishing lawyer Marie Rafael, purportedly the Palace assistant who is the apparent choice of the BoA, the statement said, the top job requires technical competence.

The management and the employees union pointed out that the board vouching for Rafael based solely on results of the final interview was highly questionable for skipping prequalifying, screening and interviewing her and other applicants.

A board resolution said Rafael and engineer Melchor Licoben, incumbent Beneco officer-in-charge, are qualified but the board should have endorsed both as the short-listed candidates, according to the statement.

It said daily functions of the general manager of an electric cooperative are not a dose of interviews but entail technical mien to shepherd the cooperative’s operations.

The management and the employees union asserted there was no vacancy for the highest position in the first place since the board already chose the second option of selecting the general manager from the ranks of the department managers under NEA Memorandum 2017-035.

Earlier, the board passed Resolution 2020-90 dated April 21, 2020 naming Licoben as the general manager and Resolution 2020-190 dated August 23, 2020 stating he need not vacate his position in the interim.

The NEA did not issue any standing order to Licoben to vacate his post as officer-in-charge.

“We are quite surprise to learn why Rafael had a copy of the BoA resolution when NEA Memorandum 2017-035 clearly states that the list of applicants who passed the NEA board final interview, with necessary information and results of the background investigation, shall then be transmitted to the electric cooperative board for perusal and selection. [To date], Beneco has yet to receive its official copy of the transmittal from the NEA,” the statement from the management and employees union said.

In her earlier statement, Rafael accused some Beneco officers of allegedly causing the publication of letters addressed to the BoA misleading the co-op employees, local governments and the public by insinuating that the selection process for the position of general manager was allegedly rigged and railroaded because she had a strong political back-up in the national government being an official of the Presidential Communications Operations Office and that such suspicion is not at all fair.

She said she did not want to drag other people to join in and allow things to go haywire for personal interests and called on people to stop the bickering and get back to work because, according to her, they owe it to the members and consumers of Beneco.

Since the questioned BoA resolution has been released, Rafael said, she will respect the authority of the NEA and subject herself to the wisdom of the board.