- GILBERT BAYORAN
The plebiscite to ratify the Joint Venture Agreement between the Central Negros Electric Cooperative and Primelectric Holdings Inc. has been extended by two days, Ceneco acting general manager, Atty. Arnel Lapore, said.
The JVA plebiscite is scheduled on June 24 and 25, as well as on July 1 and 2.
Lapore said the extension will be on July 8 and 9, in addition to the original dates.
In order for the JVA to be approved, it should have the concurrence of 50 percent plus one of the 210,000 Ceneco member-consumers.
Meanwhile, the Ceneco MCO (member-consumer-owners) issued a “Notice to Explain” to all members of the Ceneco Board, over their decision to enter into a JVA with Primelectric Holdings Inc./Negros Electric and Power Corporation.
They claimed that the Ceneco Board and Lapore have betrayed their mandate by signing the JVA on June 3.
General Alliance of Workers Associations secretary general Wennie Sancho, meanwhile, dismissed Wednesday the Notice Of Strike (NOS) filed by the Ceneco Union of Rational Employees (CURE) as “premature” and “anti-consumer”.
Sancho said that one of the grounds in the NOS is union busting, which is the dismissal of duly elected union officer that would threaten the existence of the union, in which case the union could go on strike immediately.
He, however, said that the grounds for filing the NOS is “baseless” because there is no union officer from CURE dismissed from Ceneco.
“The claim of the union, therefore, is premature,” Sancho stressed.
Reiterating his support for the JVA, Sancho said that the Ceneco member-consumers have been suffering from power outages for decades.
“To expose them to more distress and inconvenience would be adding insult to injury, as the impending labor strike would be detrimental to the interest of member-consumers,” he said./GB
