BAGUIO CITY: The Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) has clarified it is not meddling with the decision of the National Electrification Association (NEA) on its endorsement of lawyer Marie Rafael as the general manager of the Benguet Electric Cooperative Inc. (Beneco).

Rafael is an assistant secretary with the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

In a statement, the group said it was taking umbrage with Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr.’s comment that electric cooperatives should respect the process of the NEA in selecting and hiring general managers of electric cooperatives.

“The association is not meddling with the NEA’s process. In fact, we strongly agree with Secretary Roque’s statement that there is indeed a process that should be followed in the hiring and [appointing] of general managers of electric cooperatives,” according to lawyer Janeene Depay-Colingan, executive director and general manager of Philreca.

“The BoA (Board of Administrators of the NEA) is supposed to endorse and transmit those who passed the initial screening and final interview to the (electric cooperative’s) board of directors. What did the BoA do? They endorsed only one from among the two qualified candidates. Now, was the process followed? Respecting the process does not mean we have to blindly follow what was instructed to us,” she said.

In a joint letter from the Philreca and the National Association of General Managers of Electric Cooperatives Inc. (Nagmec) sent to the Board of Administrators of NEA dated May 6, 2021, Philreca reminded the BoA about NEA Memorandum 2017-035 entitled “Selection, Hiring, Termination of Service and Suspension for General Managers of Electric Cooperatives” and NEA Memorandum 2018-004 entitled “Revised Policy Guidelines on the Conduct of Examination and Interview for Applicants of General Managers of Electric Cooperatives.”

“This is the guideline that the Board of Administrators should follow,” Colingan said.

The NEA Memorandum 2017-035 provides that “the list of applicants who passed the NEA board’s final interview, with necessary information and results of the background investigation, shall then be transmitted to the (Beneco) board for perusal and selection.”

This memorandum is posted on NEA’s official website.

In the recently passed NEA Resolution 202147, the BoA approved the endorsement of Rafael, “the candidate with the highest score in the final interview” for the position of Beneco general manager.

The Philreca and Nagmec, however, said, “The decision of the (BoA) to select and endorse only one of the two qualified candidates is grave abuse of discretion. There is nothing under NEA Memorandum 2017-035 that explicitly allows the BoA to recommend only one applicant based on the scores of the final BoA interview. Such decision is an unlawful arrogation by the BoA unto itself of the power to decide who should be the [general manager] GM which by law is vested in [the Beneco’s] board of directors,” they said in their joint letter.

“We, at Philreca and Nagmec, find it alarming that the Board of Administrators themselves failed to follow the policy and guidelines that they themselves drafted and approved. It was clearly stated in the guidelines that the selection of the general manager is a major responsibility of the Beneco’s board of directors,” Allan Laniba, Nagmec president, said.

“When the (BoA) decided to select and endorse only one of the two qualified candidates and expected the utility to appoint their endorsement in just a week’s time, they stripped Beneco of its independence and power to select its own general manager. This is a grave abuse of discretion,” Laniba added.

Presley de Jesus, Philreca president, clarified he is not interfering with the NEA’s endorsement.

He, however, said he supports the appropriate and approved process and this should be strictly followed by the very institution that approved it.

“The Board of Administrators should not intervene in the affairs and mandate of the (Beneco board). The BoA committed grave abuse of discretion because the (BoA) has no power, neither by virtue of Republic Act 10531 nor by any existing regulatory measures, to choose which of the qualified applicants they should endorse to the (Beneco board) based on any arbitrary preference of the Board of Administrators,” de Jesus added.

The Philreca and Nagmec are hoping the BoA “will rectify its error and set aside Resolution 2021-47 to spare itself from a deluge of serious legal actions and unprecedented rant not just from Beneco’s member consumer-owners but from the entire (cooperatives) sector (that has) the same sentiment on this issue.”