The public should be consulted before the Central Negros Electric Cooperative imposes additional charges on their consumers, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.

Leonardia, on his arrival yesterday from Manila from a meeting of the League of Cities of the Philippines, was informed that CENECO has applied before the Energy Regulatory Commission for authority to impose "other charges" that will enable them to generate P10.757 million.

It asked the ERC to grant the cooperative a provisional authority to implement the "other charges" which include increases in charges for various CENECO services such as reconnection, service installation, inspection, meter relocation, meter testing and transformer testing.

In its application, CENECO, said it is "constrained to adjust its other charges to enable it to achieve its proposed revenue requirement" which otherwise cannot be met if it "will continue to utilize its existing other charges.

Leonardia said he believes CENECO should consult the public and get their view. "If ever it is justifiable, at least we can get to what may be considered the most reasonable level of what they are demanding," he said.

Meanwhile, Leonardia said the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board should also consult the drivers if it is proposing to impose a rollback in jeepney fares.

"I hope they will conduct public hearings and consult the drivers since they could not arbitrarily just come up with their own figures based on their table computation," he said. Matters like these are tainted with public interest so he said, he believes the public must be consulted.*CGS

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