26 Abra towns now have electricity

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines  – Getting its freshest mandate, Abra Electric Cooperative continues its lofty dream of bringing Abra “out from the dark”.

Completing its permanent registration requirements with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA),  member-consumers recently ratified the cooperative’s by-laws. This ushers in Abreco to complete its task of bringing power to all the villages in Abra, said Loreto Seares Jr., the cooperative’s general manager.

To date, at least 26 out of 27 towns in the province already enjoy electricity. Out of 303 barangays, Abreco is servicing at least 95 percent.

To further bolster its viability of serving Abra, the Abreco general assembly is going to diversify to other business ventures to support the cooperative’s 100 percent electrification, Seares said.

The CDA allows cooperatives under it to engage in other business ventures if only to support its electrification goals. To further freshen up the start of the cooperative from recent issues that hounded it, member-consumers are going to the polls on of May 31 to select two more board members to complete the nine members that make up the cooperative’s policy making body.

Also to rectify past mistakes, “we have established a mediation and conciliation committee on intra-cooperative disputes so that as early as possible, conflicts that arise are nailed down at the very moment they crop up and will not derail the operations of the cooperative,” Seares said.

Though earlier cleared by the House Committee on Cooperative Development for alleged irregularities, Abreco was in the thick of criticisms over complaints that it has not been conducting general assemblies, its officials have been appointed irregularly, among others.

Member-consumers agreed to hold a yearly regular general assembly of its 47,010 consumer-members every first quarter.

Abreco’s mission “of providing electricity to the whole province and looking for greater opportunities in finding other alternatives to improve services,”  was affirmed further with renewed vigor and already away from distractions and noise of “misinformed” detractors, Abreco officials said.