BANGUED, Philippines — Abra lone district Representative Ma. Jocelyn Bernos sealed finally an earlier issue in her province over the collection of share capital by the Abra Electric Cooperative (Abreco) among its member-consumers after the coop’s signing up in the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) saying that this was legal.

“The collection of share capital by Abreco management is legal,” said Bernos, who is the Vice Chairperson of the House Committee on Cooperatives Development.

She learned that this is legal after consulting Coop NATCO party-list rep. Jose Ping-ay who explained that “share capital is legal and it is for the development of the cooperative.”

One of the first in Northern Luzon to sign up in the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and the first in the Cordillera region, Abreco has begun asking its member-consumers for their capital shares via their monthly billings, perhaps a new phenomenon in the province that did not sit very well with them.

But Rep. Bernos halted public suspicions when she herself backed Abreco’s share capital collection.

Abreco’s General Manager Loreto Seares Jr. vowed “a full disclosure of the accounting of the cooperative funds to be generated out of the contributions from the cooperators in the form of a capital build-up.”

Now under the CDA, Abreco is looking forward into diversifying to be able to withstand economic pressures of the present situation while improving its electrification efforts and service to its member-consumers.

“With Rep. Bernos at our back and Governor Eustaquio Bersamin who had providing invaluable endorsements in the programs of the cooperative, we will not fail,” Seares Jr. said.

“Windfall of Advantages”

Conversion of electric cooperatives to stock cooperatives is being urged nationwide by the Ating Koop Party-list group.

Seen to make a windfall of advantages to consumer-members, Representative Isidro Lico said enrolling into the CDA has many advantages that would redound to the member consumers and the electric cooperative itself.

CDA registered cooperatives, Rep. Lico explained, are exempted of the 12 percent government Value Added Tax (VAT) which would eventually result to the reduction of electric rates for the consumers.

Conversion of electric cooperatives into stock coop would also give recognition to consumers as co-owner of the cooperative, Rep. Lico added, explaining that in the present set-up, consumers are not considered as such because there is no record of ownership and how much the consumers are contributing.

In Baguio and Benguet, some consumer groups have been voicing out misgivings on how the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) is being run like a “private firm” and “it being a cooperative where member-consumers are a priority lies only on its name, not in its supposed practice.”

“When an electric coop registers with the CDA, every contribution of the consumers will be considered as their capital share, which could also earn corresponding dividends,” Rep. Lico reiterated.

“Boost To Electric Coops”

Registering into the CDA, the Ating Koop partylist said, also strengthen electric cooperatives because the consumers as co-owners or share holders would seriously help protect the electric cooperatives from systems loss.

He also belied criticisms that once an electric coop converts to a stock cooperative it will no longer be supported by the National Electrification Administration (NEA). “NEA under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) is mandated to support all electric cooperatives, even if they become a stock cooperative.