COLUMN: Anonobo ano ba yan? case of Daneco

Oct 13-19, 2011

BLOGISTA

By Cha Monforte

I first thought that a bacchanalian lunch was readied for the kibitzers the last time the local media tried to do a paparazzi during the National Electrification Administration (NEA) hearing on the allegations leveled against the former Daneco OIC GM Allan Laniba. We saw the Daneco boardroom full of pina barongs wore by who else but the directors. When we tried to sneak into the boardroom inside Daneco Tagum office we were told that the media was not allowed to cover the NEA hearing. That was the time that the NEA panel was about to arrive in Tagum, fresh from Manila. We did not protest. It was simply the prerogative of the investigating NEA panel to bar the local media from listening the proceedings of the hearing. When we were still waiting, board president Dean Briz and current OIC GM Engr. Felix Hibionada were simply cool and receptive to the media’s presence. When the side of the spectrum was still not tilted to their side over two years ago, I mean the Briz & Co., they pledged transparency.  Without the media’s coverage, the power consuming public would not know what’s happening to their billionaire power cooperative. We  hope there would be no silence as to the Anova/Inova/Anonovo/Anonobo? (ano ba yan?)case. We heard about that feasibility study on power generation out from our garbage and waste already funded by Daneco. Hope this wouldn’t loosen their tight command and control over Daneco.  But good that  the Briz-led board of directors had bared information and gave replies to media’s queries about that “leaking” Asuncion sub-station. Maybe they could also shed light on this anonobo ano ba yan? deal.  The talk was the consultant was paid with a hefty amount from Daneco coffers, something like P750,000 for the feasibility study. Now is the time of the fine gentlemen- OIC GM Hibionada and Daneco board president Briz to talk about what is that anonobo ano ba yan? Daneco case. Or the former Daneco OIC GM and IS Department head Allan Laniba might do the talking while he’s being suspended anew.

    Where is Cong. AGR now? He’s been a sought-after figure in Davao del Norte. The people missed him when he went to US for chemo and stem cell transplant. They were happy that their representative was healed of his hodgkin lymphoma cancer. But who knows there would be another relapse? We’re just humans and mortals. Heavens forbid. After the Davao del Norte founding anniversary last July we particularly did not see him anymore in the Kapihans or Bulwagan. Maybe he’s catching up works in Congress given that he was not there one full year. I remember that former Cong. Lorenzo “Enchong” Sarmiento, the patriarch, used to visit his district in Comval (D1) almost every weekend when he still had good health and stamina. I heard that former Davao del Norte District 1 Cong. Arrel Olano used to jetset every Friday night or Saturday morning just to be in his home in Tagum every weekend. May bahay naman ni kuya si Cong. Anthony del Rosario in Visayan Village, along the national highway.

We’ve heard of two boardmembers in Davao del Norte being asked this early to go back running for Tagum City Council by 2013 via the ruling LP party boat. The city council has last-termer Konsehales Tete So and Joedel Caasi and Konsehala Mylene Baura. So that So, Baura and last-termer Vice Mayor Allan Rellon would have vacant LP slots for boardmember by 2013, Boardmembers Joey Millan and Vicente “Enting” Eliot were accordingly prodded to go back to the City Council. The problem for now, a wag said, is that BM Millan was unmoved of the raw proposition, thus sending a message to a top political honcho that the issue should not be talked about this early. In short, BM Millan is opposing the raw political proposition. Our source did not talk about the reaction of BM Eliot.   In my early interview, Caasi said he’d be better off working in the City Hall under a future Mayor Oyo Uy. Can BM Millan afford to rebel in the last hours against the top political honcho who made him who he is now, politically? The influential honcho is no other than Mayor Rey Uy. Maybe BM Millan can rebel- knowing his high-rated legal education radio program over K95 FM. But maybe there’s just high and fast air at the moment, and fantacizing.  As to Konsehala Baura, she’s  being considered to be Oyo’s tandem given her vast women’s votes, but as of presstime Mayor Uy isn’t yet revealing his choice. Maybe the good mayor can do a Duterte (read: run for vice mayor). But in my earlier interview with him, he said he would be better off planting trees and be plain citizen so ordinary people would ask him to join with them in their breakfast when he’d be visiting the communities he had served. Konsehal Baura has one vacant BM slot in the LP for District 1 as BM Dr. Fred de Veyra belongs to Lakas-Kampi-CMD when he alone survived in the harsh political onslaughts delivered by Gov. RDR- Mayor Cee O-Vice Gov. Baby Suaybaguio-Cong AGR-aligned LP formidable machine against the loner, former Cong. Arrel Olano-aligned Lakas butitingoy candidates in the last polls.       

Tadeco has embarked into cavendish banana plantation in Pantukan. One Pantukan wag has speculated that the Tadeco might back up candidates in the coming polls knowing its political tradition since the last Marcos era with the political kingpinship of Don Antonio Floirendo Sr. But that is in so far as Davao del Norte is concerned. The wag says that Tadeco is already growing export bananas in Pantukan in more 300 hectares. Well, that depends on Antonio Jr, Tonyboy, former congressman of Davao del Norte, second district, if makisawasaw siya sa politika sa Pantukan or Comval for that matter. But what is sure is that 2013 Pantukan candidates would really knock on the Tadeco doors for political funding for quid pro quo reason. But remember that Comval is once part of the old, undivided Davao del Norte and the Floirendo patriiarch kingpin, the known “White Hair” or “Apo” did have his heyday before – in the making and unmaking of politicians in the old Davao del Norte, now Comval  included.  (for reactions, e-mail: chamonforte@yahoo.com, txt 09392218348)

Filed under: daneco, don antonio floirendo sr, daneco

On the proposed breaking of Daneco into two electric coops: Gov. Uy says “better”, Mayor Uy: “well and good”

Oct 21-27, 2010

Compostela Valley Governor Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy said that the proposal of breaking the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) into two electric cooperative is a “better” option as through it each management could have a “focus” in managing smaller service areas.

His younger brother Mayor Rey “Chiong Oy” Uy, on the other hand in separate interview, said “well and good to be manageable”.

The mayor said that the concern over the breaking up of Daneco is the possibility that it could not be economically feasible.

He said that if such is the reasoning then the sari-sari store could not have lasted doing business anymore.

“Nganong ang sari-sari store mokita man, kana pa?” he asked to underscore Daneco’s big business of selling power.

On the other hand, Daneco board president Dean Briz said that the proposal of dividing Daneco per province is already in the board of directors’s ad hoc commitee after it had been unacted before by a commitee chaired by director Dr. Roberto Alam.

He said that he learned in his recent talk with Gov. Uy that the latter was at first hesitant to the proposal on the reason that two broken up electric cooperatives would not become “self-supporting”.

Briz said that of late the governor entertained the idea since it can potentially give focus and easier way of managing smaller service areas.

Compostela Valley province, for one, has good mining industry that greatly consumes Daneco’s power, he said.

“Whle Tagum City consumes about 43 percent of Daneco’s power, Comval has now many big industrial users such as the plantas (carbon-in-pulp cyanidation plants),” Briz said.

A planta consumes power equivalent to demand of 1,000 households, he added.

“I’m also open to that proposal. We’re not selfish, we’re open to share for good,” he said even as he noted that at present Daneco needs “an overhaul”.

Earlier, Comval mayors led by Laak mayor and mayors’ league president Rey Navarro have expressed interest to divide Daneco into two units with one carved-out Compostela Valley Electric Cooperative (Comvaleco) serving their own province.

The mayors have already commissioned experts to make feasibility study on the proposal.

Earlier, Daneco deputy manager Engr. Felix Hibionada said that throughout the country it is only Daneco now which remains to service two provinces in so wide service area, even as other erstwhile big electric cooperatives had long been broken up per province. (cha monforte)

 

Filed under: daneco, Compostela Valley Governor Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy, daneco

Why not break Daneco indeed?

Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2010

EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY

Now we have formal proposal of dividing Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative coming from no less than the mayors of Compostela Valley. The showing of mayors’ interests verily signals a formal quest of the province to have their own electric cooperative.

The mayors contended with practical arguments: Daneco has since been servicing a so wide area, and according to Laak Mayor Rey Navarro, reelected president of the mayors’ league of the province, it has been servicing inefficiently given its troubled accounts and decadent power infrastructructures. For Monkayo Mayor Manuel Brillantes Jr, breaking up Daneco would give opportunity for two managements to have more focused service besides that it gives easier way in managing smaller service areas.

Mayor Navarro is right to remind everyone that Daneco is a cooperative in the first place and as such, it is owned by the members, and by their owning, they should share dividends and have patronage refund. It would seem that since then Daneco membership have never tasted receiving any dividend. The P100 given to each member attending the annual general membership assembly (AGMA) is not a dividend. It is an expense being a money given for the transportation of attending members. But has Daneco experienced to become really profitable in operations that it gave dividends during its 40 years of existence?

Since the GM Jose Amacio time, financial woes have been the order of the days of Daneco, that until the present OIC GMship (we demarcate the history of Daneco by reign of GM, whether OIC or regular one) old and new debts mix and pile up while new external charges, obligations and taxes due to demand and supply forces as well as due to governmental rules and yes, due to the remedies made by the board of directors and management owing to Daneco’s own inefficiencies, inherited and bad debts, systems losses and others. But, so sorry always, it has always financial statements on the red at the end of the last day of the fiscal year.

It seems there would be no end to the suffering of the over 126,000 Daneco membership from carrying the cross of high power costs and financial losses that the managements and boards of directors of Daneco have been addressing time and again and to no end.

Now why not share this Daneco burden, to each according to its own limits, capability and resources? Each province has its own competitive advantages. Comval has good water resources and abundant waterfalls it could tap to have renewable energy. It has a lively mining industry forming its phalanx of industrial users, 11 local government units and a Capitol which have been contributing big power payments for Daneco. The same, Davao del Norte has these- with Tagum City boasting high industrial and commercial users with its malls and bustling commerce. If the 2005 population census be the gauge, Comval and Davao del Norte (less the population of Panabo, Carmen and Sto. Tomas which are catered by Davao Light) share about 70 percent and 30 percent of the residential users, respectively. But since the jewel commercial city of Tagum has been cross-subsidizing the rural electrification in the two provinces by contributing almost a half of Daneco’s power bill payments (while not yet including the industrial-commercial Panabo City), Comval’s getting of a huge chunk of residential consumers is just fair enough to make two power enterprises equally earning.

Daneco’s breaking up is like dividing a so wide farm that has long been stricken with pests and farm diseases with infertile soil disallowing it to become productive, a prospect so hard enough for its few farm managers to contain and eradicate as when they introduce solution at the frontage areas they end up already being at a lose and confused past the middle-end section of the farm, knowing that what they have introduced at the start have begun decaying and attacked by other pests and farm problems that newly set in.

It is quite clear that focused management and service under a divided turf is the key in addressing Daneco’s problems owing from a so wide service area it has been servicing inefficiently through the decades. The sharing of costs, assets, resources and obligations is just a matter of computation, accounting and auditing. The legal tenacity of the proposal is shown in the prior breaking up of other electric coops in other parts of the country. The effects to compensation like the doubling of the salary and renumerations for the additional management and board of directors and the hiring of new manpower resulting from the separation can be better seen as generation of employment and opportunities, while the matter can be keyed on with rightful budget increases within the usual revenue-neutral regime of power coops so long as the end justifies the means. The end here we mean is the final profitability and extrication from indebtedness and inefficiency of the power coop and the salvation from the high power costs that the Daneco members always suffer nowadays. It is a question of profitability and consumers’ satisfaction that counts, and not the management-boasted inroads to coming to terms with NEA’s rating standards and protocols.

Verily, the Comval mayors’ proposal to break Daneco into two power coops has much leg to stand on while their first clamor is in itself an ex cathedra, an accomplished fact for the political feasibility of the long-overdue breaking up of the Daneco.- Cha Monforte

Filed under: daneco, daneco

Comval mayors want DANECO broken up into 2 with COMVALECO

Sept. 23-29, 2010

Compostela Valley mayors are reportedly interested to break up the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) with the carved-out one to be named as Compostela Valley Electric Cooperative (Comvaleco).

A report said that the Comval mayors have already commissioned experts to do a feasibility study (FS) on separation of a new electric cooperative that would serve the jurisdiction of the 11-town Compostela Valley.

It said that Comval mayors are up against the continuing inefficiency, high systems losses, piling up debts and high power costs being experienced by Daneco since then in its various managements up to the present time.

Inquired by the Valley & City Chronicle about the latest report in text message, Laak Mayor Rey Navarro, president of the League of Mayors in Compostela Valley, has not yet replied until press time. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)

Filed under: daneco, daneco, laak mayor rey navarro

NEWS: “I’m no protege of Cee O”- Briz

Daneco prexy says

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

MAR 17

Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) board president Dean Briz shrugged off tag of him that he is a protege of Tagum City Mayor Rey Chiong Uy citing his credentials and capacity to lead the billionaire cooperative.

“Di ko tuta ni Cee O. Unsa man ko, way buot? Nga paambakon ko ni mayor gikan sa third floor aning SP building, moambak pod ko? I’m a CPA and I need not be dictated. I know what I’m doing.,” he said in an interview inside his City Budget Office in the first floor. He is the city budget officer.

Briz said that the word protege to him did connote that he as a Daneco official is “unthinking, just following” the beck and call of the mayor.

“The point is Daneco as an organization needs to connect with local government unit which could valuably help Daneco,” he added as he cited the mayor’s accomplishment of clearing stray trees, branches and other objects that fall into Daneco power distribution lines which had caused for half of brownouts and power interruptions before the city government contracted the clearing operations throughout the city franchise area.

Briz also laughed off allegations that the mayor and Uy family including Compostela Valley Governor Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy have been planning to privatize Daneco, saying that even the more influential Aboitiz family owning the Davao Light failed to get Daneco before through privatization since “the franchise area of Daneco was made through an Act of Congress.”

He added that unless there is a new act of Congress giving Daneco’s franchise area to private entities, then privatization can occur.

Four years ago, Mayor Uy convened a power summit in Tagum City as his officials called to make Daneco in Tagum City a separate entity.

Tagum City alone eats up about 40 percent of Daneco’s total power consumption and hence contributes almost a half to its income due to the high power bills of the city’s industrial and commercial users such as the malls.

The city cross-subsidizes the cost of electricity of far-flung, non-feasible towns and barangays in Samal Island, Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte and has been instrumental in Daneco’s attaining of its objective of rural electrification.

Briz underscored the importance of the help of LGUs in attaining the rural electrification objective and said that the Uys are just concerned to bring reforms and changes to make its service and management better and effective in serving the power consumers and the public

“Had Daneco not a public utility, Cee O would not have cared for Daneco,” he said.

Briz has been leading several board directors in trying to oust and replace current OIC general manager Allan Laniba, who continued to hold sway over his position with the backing of some board directors and the legal department of the National Electrification Administration. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

Filed under: daneco, Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco), Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) board president Dean Briz

NEWS: Terminated Daneco deputy GM reinstated, but legal counsel says need to TRO

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

feb 11 

The deputy general manager of Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative who was terminated in 2008 for alleged wrongdoings is now back working on his same position since last Friday after winning in a labor case that dragged for over two years.

“I’m back on the basis of a court order, back to my former position built-in the plantilla of positions approved by the National Electrification Administration,” said Engr. Felix Hibionada, who received from Daneco more than P1 million representing his back wages reckoned since April 2008 including legal and attorney’s fees.

Hibionada said, in an interview yesterday at Daneco-Tagum office, that he was “illegally terminated” by late general manager Edgar Savellano in April 2008 after he was re-assigned for long “from a deputy GM to a section head” in faraway Samal Island on allegations that he “stole wooden crates of transformers that could be used as firewood” and on the charge that “he was caught on drinking sprees during working time”.

On the latter accusation, he admitted that there was a “birthday, an occasion that he attended” but denied he was “on drinking spree”. “Wala ko nagainom, nagkataon lang to”.  

“I was also suspected to be one who instigated underground movement of Daneco employees to fight excesses and to file administrative case against Savellano,” he added.

He said all the charges against him were “purely malicious accusations” and that he was vindicated by the court’s writ of execution reinstating him last week. 

Earlier, six of the eleven members of Daneco board of directors (BOD) voted not to seek for the second time a temporary restraining order (TRO) to the Court of Appeals following the court’s denial of an earlier TRO filed by Daneco and the reversal of the National Labor Relations Commission’s reversal of a labor arbiter’s ruling that originally confirmed Hibionada’s termination.

Currently, Daneco’s BOD is locked in a struggle on the issue of replacing OIC general manager Allan Laniba with its latest showing of hairline votes favoring Hibionada’s reinstatement, which was opposed by pro-Laniba directors.  

In separate interview, Daneco legal counsel Jess Albacite said there was a need to seek TRO as there was a “greater winning chance” that Daneco would eventually win in the case against Hibionada and would not waste its money spending for his back wages claims.

“We should have a restraining order of the settlement until the Court of Appeals ruled out the finality of this case. We should not give-up the fight and have the coop pay a million of pesos to him. Any member-consumer could complain against us if we simply concede this and whatsoever will happen, it is going to be the board, who will pay the amount for this,” Atty. Albacite said.

But directors including board president Dean Briz who have opposing the current management turned the table citing that the other outcome might make Daneco lose more and inevitably pay Hibionada at greater legal costs under the burden of the power cooperative. 

Voting to reinstate Hibionada were directors Briz, Ananias Darjan Jr, Roman Calicdan, Samuel Lacierda, Jr., Miguel Fermil and Brendo P. Ceniza.

Voting in negative were directors Dr. Antonio Sebumpan Eugenio Ramonida, Engr. Dan Gervacio, retired Col. Dominador Cruda and Orlando Bugas.

Meanwhile, Daneco Tagum employees interviewed yesterday hailed Laniba for topping as number 1 in the emotional quotient (EQ) and intelligence quotient (IQ) tests made by the NEA to almost 600 applicants to general manager positions in various electric cooperatives throughout the country.  (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

Filed under: Alan Laniba, daneco, Engr. Felix Hibionada, Miguel Fermil, Samuel Lacierda, Engr. Felix Hibionada

BALITA: “DANECO way P4 M pondo para sa performance bonus sa mga empleyado”- Briz

Ni Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

feb 9 

Way pondo kay wa pay supplemental budget para sa P4 milyones nga performance bonus para sa mga opisyales ug empleyado sa Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative.

Mao kini ang giluwatan nga pamahayag ni  Daneco board president Dean Briz samtang gikataho nga grabe nang pag-alingasa  sa 146 ka empleyado nga giingong atat na atat na nga makadawat sa gisaad nga usa ka bulang sweldohan nga performance bonus matag usa kanila.

Apil usab ang mga opisyales ug miyembro sa hunta direktiba nga makadawat ug usa ka bulang performance bonus nga mokantidad ug P9,000 matag usa sa 11 ka director.

Mokantidad sa P35,016 ang performance bonus ni OIC general manager Allan Laniba samtang kasagaran sa mga department managers may performance bonus nga sobra P20,000.

Si Briz nagkanayon pinaagi sa text message kagahapong adlawa nga dili lang gayod mabalaka ang mga empleyado “kay mahatag gayod nato na, ato lang gyod ginaplastar kay wala gyoy klaro ang pagplastar sa mga hingtungdan sa management, bantog ra nga nagkalisud-lisud ta sa mga nangaging katuigan kay dili man gyod maayo ang pagdala intawon sa unang mga kapanahonan.”

Una nang mipagawas ug kalain si Briz ngadto kang Laniba tungod sa iyang giingon nga siya ug iyang kaubanan sa hunta direktiba na hinoon ang morag nahimong kontrabida ngadto sa mga empleyado sa Daneco human sila gisaway nga wala nakasabot sa malisud nga kahimtang sa mga empleyado.

Matud ni Briz miabot sa iyang lamesa ang duha ka voucher ug duha ka cheke nga may suma kantidad nga P4,086,886.82 apan matud niya wala kini niya pirmahi kay subay sa tambag ni Daneco treasurer Ananias Darjan Jr gikinahanglan pa nga isubmitar ni Laniba ang usa ka supplemental budget para paaprubahan sa hunta direktiba.

“Asa man pod ta mangita aning sobra P4 milyon samtang ang surplus lang sa Daneco sa 2009 mokantidad lang ug sobra P1.6 milyon?” pangutana pa ni Briz.

Tua kagahapon sa Manila si Laniba ug siya gipangayoan ug pamahayag apan hangtod sa pagsulat ninii wa pa siyay gipadala nga text message.

Sa pakisusi sa Pariodico Tagum kagahapon, usa ka empleyado sa finance department sa Daneco Tagum office nga dili gusto magpaila sa prensa ang mitubag sa rason ni Briz nga dili tinoud nga way pondo para sa performance bonus sa mga empleyado kay kini makuha man gikan sa general funds para sa operations ug ang gikinahanglang kwarta i-transfer lang ngadto sa payroll funds.

Niadto pang Nobyembre 14 sa miaging tuig naaprubaran ang resolution numero 267 sa Daneco board of directors (BOD) nga maghatag ug duha ka bulan nga sweldohan para sa performance bonus sa mga empleyado, ug duha ka bulang per diem para sa mga miyembro sa BOD. 

Apan niadtong Disyembre 8, 2009 mipakanaog ug usa ka direktiba ang National Electrification Administration nga ang tugutan lamang mao ang usa ka bulan nga sweldohan ug per diem. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

Filed under: daneco, daneco

OPINYON: Atat na atat na

TSA PWERA

Ni Cha Monforte

feb 9

Atat na atat na gayod ang nga empleyado sa Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative nga makadawat sa gisaad nga usa ka bulan nga sweldohan nga performance bonus nila tungod sa ilang kolektibong kahimoan nga may gradong A+ ang Daneco sa paghuman sa 2009. Kung A+ ang grado pasabot nga naka first honor ang Daneco. Maayo ang performance sa mga Daneco employees, apan imbis nga A+ nahimo na hinoong E-wan ang ilang bonus hangtod sa kasamtangan.

*****

Sa Nobyembre 14 pa sa miaging tuig naaprubaran ang resolution numero 267 sa Daneco board of directors (BOD) nga maghatag ug duha ka bulan nga sweldohan nga performance bonus sa mga empleyado, ug duha ka bulang per diem para sa mga miyembro sa BOD. Kung usa lang gani ka bulan ang performance bonus kinatibuk-ang mokantidad na kini ug sobra P4 milyones. Ang problema kay asa man mangita ug pondo niani kay ang surplus lang nga kita sa Daneco sa 2009 mikantidad lamang ug P1.6 milyones? Matud pa ni board president Dean Briz.  Je je je gyod sila directors Roman Calicdan ug Dan Gervacio kinsa miisponsor sa maong resolusyon.

*****

Kada miyembro sa Daneco BOD may tag P9,000 nga per diem kada bulan, samtang nagkadaiya ang sweldo sa mga empleyado- syempre kung taas ug posisyon dako ug sweldo, kung janitor lang gamay ra pod, basta ang pinakadako sa mga empleyado moabot ug sobra gamay P30,000 ug mga department managers sobra P20,000. Salamat na lang mipakanaog niadtong Disyembre 8, 2009 ug usa ka direktiba ang National Electrification Administration- ang bossing sa tanang kooperatiba sa sugang dagitabnon- nga dili pwede ang duha ka bulan nga sweldohan ug per dieman, pwes tag isa lang ka bulan sila. May na lang may isa kaysa wala.

*****

Matud pa ni Briz, kinatibuk-ang mokantidad ug P2,267,065.22 ang performance bonus para sa mga ordinaryong empleyado. Short gihapon ang Daneco. Wa pay labot diha ang  

P1,819,821.60 para sa mga tag-as ug posisyon ug mga BOD members. E-wan asa mangita ang Daneco ug pondo nianing  P4,086,886.82 suma kantidad?

*****

Para sa mga atat na atat nga mga empleyado, naka cheke na kining P4,086,886.82 ug anaa na sa lamesa ni Briz. Ang nakaapan kay dili niya pirmahan kay wa may pondo, wa may supplemental budget nga gisubmitar si OIC general manager Allan Laniba ngadto sa BOD. Giingon nga gipalangay-langay lang gyod ni Briz ang pag-release sa performance bonus sa unsang di mahibal-an nga motibo, o basig di lang gyod niya mahimong bida si Laniba? Apan may rason pod biya si Briz kay gamay lang ang surplus sa miaging tuig ug wa may pondo. May natigom pod nga mga lugi sa Daneco gikan sa tuig 2002 hangtud sa tuig 2006, ug ang P1.6 milyones nga surplus sa 2009 di sarang ikatapal sa natigom nga mga lugi.Mora na hinoon mi nahimong mga kontrabida ani, matud pa ni Briz.

*****

Aw diay? Kay may net loss man gyod ang Daneco kung isumada ang kita versus mga gasto gikan sa 2002 hangtud 2009, dili na lang seguro nato ipugos nga i-release ang performance bonus alang sa kaayuhan sa mga konsumante sa Daneco, kay kung i-release gayod kani, di madugangan na pod ang pagkalugi sa Daneco. Malamdagan unta ang mga empleyado nianing pagsigeg awas sa dugo sa Daneco. Mo-donate unta ug dugo ang mga empleyado ug opisyales sa Daneco kaysa tabangan kinig sopsop ug dugo kay morag nangluspad na biya ni.

*****

TINALIGSIK: Sa pagkatinoud, matud pa sa atong bubuwet, gireserba alang kang last-termer Arrel Olano ang usa ka posisyon pagka boardmember o pagka campaign manager sa linya ni Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario sa Liberal Party…. Lain pod tan-awon nga ang usa ka mograduatetay nga kongresman mopaubos ug dagan pagka boardmember kay tan-awon siya nga nanginabuhi na lang sa politika. Mao nga midagan na lang si Olano pagka mayor sa Tagum City …. Puli kang Olano pagka boardmember si kanhi boardmember Shirley Aala ug kini giduso ni Olano. Si Aala gi-junk na ni City Mayor Rey Chiong Uy nga di suportaran kay tataw nga maka Olano….. Nagapadayon ang mga kahimoan ni Comval Boardmember Atty. Dexter Lopoz, ang Top 2 sa 2001 nga bar exams. Daghan siyang mga nahimong ordinansa probinsyal alang sa Distrito 1, samtang top usab si Boardmember Moran Takasan sa Distrito 2. Maayo nga mag-tandem ang duruha sa pangumpanya, galing lang kay magkabilaan man ang ilang mga distrito…. Nagpadayon gihapon ang CELLBEER nga politiko sa Nabunturan, Compostela Valley sa iyang imahen sa publiko. Kung di man gani CELLphone ang gigunitan sa iyang kamot samtang nanabako BEER pilsen ang gunit niani. Kinsa ni siya? Kauban ni siya sa pildidong linya ni kandidato pagkamayor Raul Caballero. Delikado mapagan ka ana niya ‘sehal nag-una pa biya ka gihapon sa survey. (e-mail: chamonforte@yahoo.com)

Filed under: Comval Boardmember Atty. Dexter Lopoz, dan gervacio, daneco, roman calicdan, Comval Boardmember Atty. Dexter Lopoz, dan gervacio, daneco, roman calicdan

OPINION: The rose of Darjan

BLOGISTA

By Cha Monforte

feb 3 

Daneco OIC GM Allan Laniba isn’t supposed to be the target of the Darjan’s List of 54 deficiencies of the power cooperative. Messy things inside were there before Laniba assumed as top management honcho, albeit temporary.I managed to browse the recent operations audit report of the National Electrification Administration, and a lot of officials, persons and agencies dealing with Daneco mentioned would still have to account, liquidate and justify their expenditures, or refund the monies disallowed by NEA or pay Daneco for the funds absconded. Most of these improper and questionable acts were done before Laniba’s assumption as OIC GM April last year. But this is worth for another series of essays on what’s happening with Daneco inside based on the NEA audit report.

Daneco’s primary lines, according to Darjan, are already over 20 years old and ideally, these need rehabilitation after ten years of usage. The director-treasurer asked on whether the management has already a program for rehabilitation of the primary lines. It was thrown as though the planning of this isn’t within the ambit of the policy-making powers of the BOD.

Darjan also reckoned that about 70 percent of Daneco’s 12,000 transformers has the age of over 4 years while transformers are supposed to have efficient time of two years only. What has been happening is that transformer is replaced only after it blows up. With the practice, core loss is happening and load assessment becomes messy, Darjan said.

There’s also this case where suppliers of Daneco transformers had not been lately required of certificate of warranty even as this had been imposed before as a supply contract requirement, though only halfheartedly, according to Darjan. The case led Briz, Darjan and Co. to inquire further until they reached the extent of whether the supply underwent bidding or not. Darjan bared that in some cases favored suppliers did not pass the bidding as the management only resorted to repeat orders.

But here’s a sweetener offered by Darjan: “I don’t question their integrity, but only the process itself kay sa ordinaryong tawo makaingon sila nga may binuang (for ordinary people might say there’s misdeed here)”. It is even alleged that some Daneco contractors and suppliers had been then favored “kay malakas sa sulod”, and knowing this, Briz, Darjan and Co. accordingly amended the Daneco procurement policy last year as “there’s a need to institute transparent and democratic process”.

Darjan further bared that before, in some instances few bidders did not even put up the bidders’ bond while others delivered late but were accepted without even being charged of penalty. Worst, Darjan added “advance payment to suppliers was made when it was only the purchase order ( PO ) that was delivered and not the supply. This was the case to the supplier of the 6,000 digital readers which were delivered on November 2009 while the PO was served sometime July to August last year, the time when “the supplier got 50-percent cash advance” from P6-million project even as the supplier had yet to go to China to procure the supply. (To be continued)

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BLOGS AND BITS: BLOGS AND BITS: One Israel ’s gaffe. Boardmember Roger Israel, candidate for vice governor in Davao del Norte has accordingly fetish for microphone. Without being asked, he took the microphone before the recent blessing of a FM station in Tagum City and started emceeing with his comic bolantero-like tones.…. Israel made an uncalled-for gaffe in one of national conventions he attended. There in a posh hotel in Manila , he took the initiative to become an emcee. Sources said Israel was quoted to have uttered “informative information” while emceeing. That’s just fine as he’s also a member of the local media, the mediaman who rose to become a successful Tagum politician…. Dr. Fred De Veyra is a versatile Tagum politician. He’s being loved by the masa for his natural ways of playing the art of politics. He’s a natural man on the street. He’s been serving the city and province by giving affordable eye care service and affordable reading glasses. He’s the Mata ng Bayan. He is running for boardmember in Davao del Norte’s District 1. (e-mail: chamonforte@yahoo.com)

Filed under: Allan Laniba, daneco, dr. fred de veyra, Allan Laniba, daneco, dr. fred de veyra

OPINION: Qualification blockade

BLOGISTA

By Cha Monforte

jan 29

Like a Pandora Box, the Darjan’s List springs out a bad state of organizational affairs that needs to be urgently addressed and corrected by the present board of directors and management of the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative. At this onset, let it be set that these questionable goings-on in Daneco were bared in my lengthy interview with Daneco board director-treasurer Ananias Darjan Jr last Tuesday at the city motorpool compound where the general services office which he currently heads is located.

And from where I sit, these goings-on, I should say, could not be blamed to the present occupant of the GM seat, Allan Laniba, who has been the OIC GM for only nine months now. While the present Laniba-critical directors including their president Dean Briz, also the city budget officer, have been expressing in various fora that they only want change and reforms in the power cooperative while wanting to replace Laniba, it is obvious that they have been  short of their call for reforms and change as, for one, they equate this with the ouster of Laniba.

Second, while they- and particularly Darjan- identified and pinpointed organizational areas that need to be corrected and changed, and have managed to introduce policy- and deliberation-fueled, or call it, harangues-based reforms, there has actually no serious finger-pointing made involving many except one – as to who was or were really culpable and responsible for the “54 deficiencies” listed and brought forth by Darjan on the boardroom table during last Saturday’s failed ouster bid against Laniba.

It matters when there are sanctioned probes and investigations made by the board. It matters most to the thousands of power consumers when heads would roll and culprits are identified, fined, penalized, sued or imprisoned for improper, illegal acts made against the power cooperative that is collectively owned by the power consumers. In the revelations of Darjan, they are only up against the process and it begins with the ouster of Laniba. But evidently the many deficiencies presented do not begin with Laniba’s assumption as OIC GM. They obviously begin before him. Daneco’s “deficient” state of affairs, to reiterate, is a confluence of the previous organizational systems and cultures introduced in different management episodes marked by various GMships. To attribute and pin the blame on “deficiencies” to Laniba cries to heaven for justice.

Let it also be said now that Laniba is not the target in Darjan’s List, in organizational perspective. If the process is only the target, then that is being proactive towards reforming and changing things than being prosecutorial, or than being combative in search for justice. But maybe by being proactive, as a moderate approach, can unmake things that have long been overdue for change and reforms in Daneco. When that happens, then there’s no need to shop around for new Daneco GM and replace Laniba, who is acknowledged by his co-department managers as the most senior over them and is backed up now by the employees’ rank and file.

However, the assertion of Briz and Co. of replacing Laniba with one who is a technical man or specifically an electrical engineer dawns as a caveat set by them as a qualification blockade meant only to unseat Laniba despite that the National Electrification Administration’s bylaws do not really impose this requirement for the holder of GM seat in any power cooperative in the country such as Daneco. Maybe Laniba is not just Briz and Company’s SOB. (To be continued. In my next column- The anatomy of  Darjan’s List of 54 Daneco deficiencies)

Filed under: Ananias Darjan Jr., daneco, Ananias Darjan Jr., daneco