BAGUIO CITY -- Leaders of the two groups in a virtual tug-of-war in Benguet Electric Cooperative have decided to patch up and set aside their differences, ending a long leadership dispute that has already affected the cooperative’s operations.
Controversy has been hounding the electric cooperative since 2021 for having two general managers -- Engineer Melchor Licoben who was appointed by the board of directors, and Atty. Marie Rafael who was appointed by the National Electrification Administration (NEA).
The presence of two general managers created a situation wherein banks are unable to transact with the cooperative. The situation also forced the cooperative’s partner banks to freeze its accounts until the leadership dispute was resolved.
On Monday, the Sangguniang Panglungsod (of Benguet) intervened to help the two feuding camps resolve their differences.
The provincial council on Monday initiated the move, especially since Beneco already has unpaid dues to TeaM Energy, the independent power generation which provides the cooperative its needed power requirements.
With the provincial council’s mediation, both camps acceded to the city officials’ call to put aside their dispute and come up with mutually acceptable arrangements for the settlement of Beneco’s unpaid dues that have already reached P245 million as of June 2022.
The city council’s Committee on Public Work, Transportation, and Traffic Legislation was tasked to mediate in the compromise talk between the two camps and submit a report to the city council within 30 days.
The councilors stressed that problems concerning the operations of the electric cooperative must be resolved urgently so as to prevent the possible stoppage of power services to the public.
Licoben admitted the electric cooperative’s bank accounts containing a total amount of P441 million had become inaccessible, affecting the operations of the electric cooperative including the settlement of payments to its power supplier, TeaM Energy.
He said the delay in payment may result in surcharges as stipulated in the contract and may jeopardize the efforts of the electric cooperative to renew its contract with TeaM Energy.
Atty. Esteban Somngi, BOD President, mentioned that the provision of educational, burial, and medical assistance as part of the cooperative’s corporate social responsibilities had also been put on hold due to the inaccessibility of its bank accounts.
“Not only that, employees’ benefits such as retirement pay are being withheld as a result of the freezing of the bank accounts,” Somngi added.
In his advisory issued on December 27, 2021, Licoben explained that Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) and the Philippine National Bank (PNB) changed the signatories and closed the accounts.
Meanwhile, the Development Bank of the Philippines stopped honoring Licoben and Somngi as signatories. Metrobank, Rang-ay, and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), on the other hand, decided to freeze the funds.
The seventh bank, Summit Bank, sought the court’s intervention by filing a declaratory relief.
All these stemmed from the leadership dispute between Licoben and Atty. Marie Rafael.
In their letter to the city officials dated July 22, 2022, the Beneco management, the board of directors, the Beneco Supervisors’ Association, and the BENECO Employees Labor Union assailed the camp of Rafael for allegedly ‘harassing’ the banks, causing these banks to either stop honoring Licoben and Somngi as authorized signatories or freeze the Beneco funds.
They also accused Rafael's camp of illegally withdrawing P58 million from LBP, P2.6 million from PNB, and P8.5 million from BPI.
However, Atty. Matia Cascolan-Andres, Rafael’s spokesperson, dismissed the claims of Licoben’s camp as mere ‘speculations.’
She denied the allegation that the banks had received threats and claimed that the suspension of transactions with any party was instead an offshoot of the banks’ ‘internal policy.’
In an official statement issued last August 7 on social media, Rafael said the banks were only ‘exercising their mandate to safeguard their depositors’ financial accounts’ and were ‘trying to seek redress from the courts who shall decide to whom they shall transact with or have the funds be released to.’
She pointed out that the bank accounts had been made inaccessible both to her and Licoben.
In response to the city council’s request for transparency, both camps agreed to submit to the council their audited financial reports in the past months and to furnish the body quarterly financial reports henceforth.
Councilor Jose Molintas at the same time advised both camps to avoid hurling disparaging comments at each other on social media so as not to exacerbate existing problems.
On September 23, 2021, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution urging NEA-Board of Administrators to maintain a status quo in the leadership of Beneco until all issues on the selection of the electric cooperative’s general manager have been resolved.
The dispute in the BENECO leadership has been elevated to the local courts and the Court of Appeals