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Rotary District 3860 Governor Peter “Perok” Rodriguez (right) of Ormoc City bids around 400 Rotarians farewell during the closing ceremony of the 2-day District Assembly held at Ormoc on April 20 & 21. At the table are dignitaries including Cong. Lucy Torres-Gomez whose message “to much has been given, much is expected” struck the members of the humanitarian organization. Rodriguez’s wife is the cousin of the congresswoman. At far right is immediate past district governor Leoncio Villa-abrille of the Rotary District of South Davao.

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MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte – The Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative (SOLECO) here has petitioned the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to refund its more than 60,000 member-consumers around P 10-million representing “over recovery” of power generation and transmission costs for the years 2004 up to 2011.
This information, said Rodolfo “Butch” Celestial, regional coordinator of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (Nasecore) is a “welcome development” as it vindicates their claims of “over collection” of various electric cooperatives in the land for many years now. It is a matter of semantics, he said, but the “over recovery” SOLECO is saying is the same “over collection” they are claiming.
NASECORE, in its own study, has computed that SOLECO has “over collected” P 9.1-million in just four years, from 2006 to 2009.
The information that SOLECO is petitioning ERC to grant it permission to refund consumers came from Archie Salazar, OIC manager, during a power forum held at the city gym here this week. He added that SOLECO merely acted as “collection agent” for the power generators and transmission operators (PNOC-EDC and Napocor in the past and now EDC and NGCP).
The initiative to refund the “over recovery” is the first time undertaken by SOLECO. It was also learned that the “refund” was also in compliance with Resolution No. 16 of the ERC which mandates electric cooperatives and distribution utilities nationwide to check whether charges collected from power users that must be remitted to other entities were still to be recovered or were already in excess, a procedure known in its technical term as “true-up mechanism”, Salazar explained.
He said in the case of SOLECO, management has determined that some items for generation and transmission collected from member-consumers were already in excess, hence the need to refund them. The approval of the ERC on their move is expected to come anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Celestial of NASECORE said that SOLECO’s move to refund consumers is to deflect their move to have the NEA supervised electric cooperative into a real cooperative under the Cooperative Development Authority. He added that they do not have any objection to the refund but added “there should be a regulatory audit”.
“Only after the regulatory audit will we know how much really SOLECO has to refund”, he added. The refund mechanism should also be well mapped out, he added, because by next year, the demand would again increase and there would be another “over collection”.
He also pointed out that the refund only strengthens their position to convert the EC into a real cooperative so that member-consumers will enjoy patronage refunds and rebates and have a say in its management.
ECs and DUs began collecting generation and transmission charges in 2004 following the implementation of Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 which resulted to the unbundling of electricity rates. All components of the effective power rate are detailed in full, specifying those for generation, transmission, and distribution charges.
The SOLECO manager said only the items listed in the distribution charges will be utilized by the ECs and the DUs, while those for generation and transmission are merely passed on.
The moment ERC approves SOLECO’s request, he said, it will be reflected as a deduction in every member’s electric bill based on the kilowatt-hour consumed. No cash-out will be made, Salazar added.
The scheme, he said, may take three years more or less to complete, Salazar also said.  By Marcelino Pedalino/PIA and Lalaine M. Jimenea

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CONG. LUCY Torres-Gomez of this city scored another victory against her protesters after the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) dismissed a quo warranto petition filed against her by loser Silverio Tagolino for “lack of merit”.
Tagolino is the 3rd congressional candidate who ran last May 2010 and only got 493 votes against Lucy’s 101,250.
Tagolino, who admitted in a previous interview that his protest was bankrolled by Eufrocino “Winnie” Codilla, Jr., filed a quo warranto case against Lucy which is a legal move to question the qualifications of a person in position whether she is the rightful occupant or not. Codilla, who got 76,549 votes only, also filed an election protest against Lucy which he also lost before the HRET in a decision released earlier.
In its decision on Tagolino’s complaint, seven out of nine members voted for its dismissal. They include the three Supreme Court associate justices Diosdado M. Peralta, Lucas P. Bersamin and the ponente, Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr.
Congressman Rufus Rodriguez dissented while Cong. Rodolfo Albano took “no part”.
In his quo warranto petition, Tagolino again reiterates the same questions on Lucy’s qualification as a valid candidate, claiming her husband’s disqualification “cancelled” his Certificate of Candidacy; that her own substitution papers had an infirmity and that she was no longer a resident of Ormoc.
The HRET however, struck all these down citing various jurisprudence. At the end, the HRET quotes the Supreme Court in Frivaldo vs. Comelec as a “benchmark” in “resolving matters similar to this petition”. The quote states: “This Court has repeatedly stressed the importance of giving effect to the sovereign will in order to ensure the survival of our democracy. In any action involving the possibility of a reversal of a popular electoral choice, this Court must exert utmost effort to resolve the issues in a manner that would give effect to the will of the majority, for it is merely sound public policy to cause elective offices to be filled by those who are the choice of the majority. To successfully challenge a winning candidate’s qualifications, the petitioner much clearly demonstrate that the ineligibility is to patently antagonistic to constitutional and legal principles that overriding such ineligibility and thereby giving effect to the apparent will of the people would ultimately create greater prejudice to the very democratic institutions and juristic traditions that our Constitution and laws so zealously protect and promote.”
As for a news item at the Philippine Daily Inquirer which appeared rather belatedly titled “SC won’t stop HRET from acting on protest vs. Lucy Torres”,  Richard Gomez, Lucy’s husband and chief of staff said “the SC ruling actually works on our favor”.
The Supreme Court, he said, merely says that it was not stopping the HRET from hearing Codilla’s protest because it was the sole arbiter of election protests against congressmen. And the HRET had already issued a decision on the case at bar and it was favorable to Lucy.
Like the dismissal on Tagolino’s petition for quo warranto, the HRET decision on Codilla’s protest dismissed the technicalities raised. It noted the hard reality that despite being a “reluctant and accidental candidate”, Lucy won decisively the people’s mandate with a 24,701 margin over the protestant who had the aces stacked in his favor being the incumbent’s son. By Lalaine M. Jimenea

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PHILIPPINE NATIONAL Police Chief Nicanor A. Bartolome has cleared PO2 Jong Oliva from allegations of being a protector of the drug trade here after he received the report of PNP regional director Ch. Supt. Arnold Rayala Revilla exonerating Oliva and two other cops, including CIDG regional deputy Ch. Insp. Bernard Lao.
With the exception of  PO1 Tata Villamor, a member of a clan known to be closely associated to the Codillas, Revilla said that the implicated cops are “on the forefront” of the fight against drugs in Ormoc and neighboring municipalities.
Cong. Lucy Torres-Gomez said she personally saw Bartolome to ask that Oliva is cleared of a clear hatchet job on the poor cop, with the ultimate goal of besmirching her.
Lucy said that she handpicked Oliva from among the many policemen in the city because he came highly recommended by the church community here. Oliva is a church choir singer and known to be very religious. He is known to have very high scruples, has no known vices and usually works out and teaches boxing on his free time.
Meanwhile, Lucy said she is also working to have Ch. Insp. Bernard Lao cleared. When she saw Secretary Jesse Robredo at his office, Robredo showed her a text from CIDG director Samuel Pagdilao attesting to Lao’s unimpeachable record as a cop.
On the other hand, PNP regional director Revilla said they have traced the text message implicating Oliva and Lao to a “political rival” of Lucy. By Lalaine M. Jimenea

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ENGR. ROBERT CASTANARES of the Southern Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. explains the things they’ve noted on the RDP and what the business sector would like to see.

TACLOBAN CITY – All’s well that ends well.
After blowing his top off after finding that the government-prepared Regional Development Plan was “defective”, Engr. Robert Castañares of the Southern Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. is “appeased” this week after getting the assurance of Department of Trade and Industry and heads of line agencies that they will come up with a detailed sectoral and agency plan on how they propose to achieve their RDP goals.
It was also agreed that the matter of Chamber representation at the Regional Development Council (RDC) would be studied, with incumbent Eastern Visayas governor Atty. Roy Fiel of the Ormoc Chamber as representative and Castañares as “alternate”.
An executive meeting attended by Fiel, Castañares, and presidents/representatives of other chambers in the region was held at the Technology and Science Center of the Department of Science and Technology.
In attendance on the part of the government were Nierras, DOST regional director Edgardo Esperancilla, Philippine Coconut Authority assistant regional director Joel Pilapil, DA director Gerundio, Eve Paran of the National Statistical Coordinating Board, Trina Dacuycuy of the Department of Tourism and others.
Nierras said that they have come to realize that to reach their development targets, an “industry clustering” approach has to be adopted. In fact, she informed, this was already the identified strategy and welcomed the Chambers’ interest in participating in the planning process.
With the “industry clustering” process, she said, a value and supply chain is built, making it easier to identify where a certain sector lacks or is weak and where it can be improved.
Castañares, on the other hand, even as he lauded Nierras for facilitating the meeting, expressed frustration that the NEDA regional director was not around to clarify some matters.
To recall, Castañares wrote the various heads of government agencies, including NEDA, to explain the discrepancy between the RDP for 2011 to 2016. The RDP was presented to the Chambers in a meeting last March, but the group of businessmen said it was far from the truth.
The RDP, he noted, painted a rosy picture of a poverty reduction rate of 50 percent after five years, contradicting statistics that show the region’s worsening economic situation and rising poverty incidence which has made it the 5th poorest region in the country.
Castañares criticized the NEDA for its “sloppy work” and also Secretary Paderanga for approving and endorsing “a poorly crafted RDP” to the Office of the President “meant only to please the President” with its bloated projections.
What’s more, NEDA regional director Atty. Buenaventura Go-Soco and Eve Paran was not around during the meeting, whom he said should have been present to explain the projections.  He noted, “We stayed and waited for you in the meeting from 9AM to 4PM”, he said.
Castañares stressed that this is the first time that the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (PCCI) in the region is participating in the process of formulating the regional business development plan, in consonance with Pres. Benigno Aquino III’s call for a public-private partnership.
He said that as businessmen, data, statistics and figures are important for them to make informed decisions. Planning ahead is also integral and it must be based on hard facts.
Ms Paran of the NSCB who was already present during the second meeting said that she understood the businessmen’s concern but explained that their office’s duty was to merely gather statistical data and interpret it. To preserve their independence and integrity of their data, they are not involved in the planning.
Paran, however, said that their data shows what needs to be strengthened in the region was its agriculture and industries. She also agreed that the agencies have to work together to coordinate how to achieve their common goals.
Atty. Roy Fiel, for his part, said that since the region is still largely agricultural, that the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 should be put to work. “15 years have passed but nothing has been modernized”, he observed, and government figures itself show that 93 percent of businessmen are labeled as “micro”.
The representative from Tacloban, on the other hand, urged DTI to work on giving incentives to local businessmen so that they are not gobbled up by the “giants” that are coming in. He noted that in Tacloban, many small businesses closed shop when Gaisano came in. More so now with Robinsons, noting that these entities are not even paying their taxes in the city but in their head offices. By Lalaine M. Jimenea

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PALOMPON, LEYTE – The Western Union remittance center of this town was this week’s target of the so-called Acetylene Gang but the burrowing thieves had to content themselves with some P 8,000 cash sales from the Generics Pharmacy next door because they could not open its vault.
A police car, by chance, parked outside as the robbery attempt was going on, discouraging the thieves from trying to cut through the vault with acetylene as it would create noise.
The attempted theft was discovered only at around 6:00 AM of April 12, Thursday, when personnel reported to the pharmacy and discovered its inside in disarray, with a hole on its wall.
According to Insp. Raul Tundag Sarabia, chief of police, their investigation indicate that the thieves entered the Generics Pharma by boring a hole on its concrete ceiling from the room they rented above. The pharmacy and Western Union are on the ground floor of the Russel Pension House, just at the town center.
Then, from the pharmacy, the thieves again bore a hole through the wall dividing it from Western Union. However, they surmised the thieves changed their plan of cutting through Western Union’s vault when a police car parked just in front at around 3:30 AM.
Sarabia said they usually go around the poblacion at that time for routine patrol and police visibility and would randomly park the patrol car. That fateful night, they parked at the vicinity of the Western Union. Maybe, Sarabia added, this made the thieves decide to just ransack the pharmacy and get whatever they can. The pharmacy reportedly lost around P8,000 in cash sales.
Meanwhile, it was also learned that the suspected thieves had been holed up at the Russel Pension Houses since the Holy Week yet. Staff told police that three men rented the room sometime during the holidays yet.
Police recovered from the site a portable acetylene tank, some pliers, and cutters for steel bars, among other implements.
The “Acetylene Gang”, reportedly a big-time syndicate, gets its name from its operations which is to cut through steel bars and vault with the use of acetylene. Their usual modus is to burrow through tunnels to their targeted establishments or target pawnshops/money changers renting on buildings with pension houses on top.
In Ormoc City, Christmas of December 2010, members of the notorious gang coming from Benguet were nabbed in a nearby lodging house after a baker discovered a hole on the ground leading to the pawnshop next door.
The men, around seven of them, were detained at the city jail here for many months and hefty bail bonds ranging from P 200,000 to P 500,000 recommended against each one of them.
The suspects’ lawyers did not even bother to question the hefty bail bonds slapped against their clients. One after the other, they put up their required bonds. The last to go out was the alleged mastermind whose recommended bail was P 500,000.
Insp. Sarabia said he would confer with authorities in Ormoc City to see if the same group that struck the city in 2010 was the same people who operated in Palompon town this week.
A research of the internet also shows that the gang have not stopped their operations. From January alone, members have already struck several banks and pawnshops across the country. Some were successes while some were failures, too.

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