Activist think tank Infrawatch PH has stood up and opposed the congressional franchise renewal of the First Laguna Electric Cooperative (FLECO) citing poor service and unreasonably high electricity rates.
Infrawatch said Congress should consider rejecting the franchise renewal application ostensibly on FLECO’s “failure to provide an adequate level of service to its customers.”
“Congress should unqualifiedly reject the franchise renewal application of First Laguna Electric Cooperative Inc. for its failure to provide an adequate level of service to its customers and for its failure to ensure the least cost of electricity within its franchise area,” Terry Ridon, Infrawatch PH convenor, said in a statement.
According to Ridon, the electric cooperative suffers from perennial and prolonged brownouts within its franchise area and discourages businesses from setting up shops and facilities in the area despite its proximity to Metro Manila.
“Uninterrupted and reliable power supply are absolute preconditions for manufacturing hubs to invest in particular areas. Laguna towns within FLECO’s service area will fail to ride on the country’s continuing economic growth if it remains dependent on a middle-of-the-road service provider. In fact, these areas have failed to join the growth of other Laguna economic hubs such as Santa Rosa and San Pedro precisely because of unreliable power supply,” Ridon added.
Infrawatch asserted FLECO failed to serve its customers by failing to ensure the least cost of electricity and exacerbates an already dire situation with perennial and prolonged brownouts.
“FLECO’s customers are unjustly subjected to the twin burdens of poor service and high costs. This is a severe symptom of a failed public utility which extracts profit from its customers without providing a commensurate level of service. For context, its rates are almost 30-percent higher than the country’s largest distribution utility,” Ridon further said.
