Roberto Montelibano, board president of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, yesterday started briefings with mayors and representatives of towns and cities under the coverage area of CENECO on the status of its contract with KEPCO-Salcon Power Corp.

“I wanted them to have a briefing of the situation,” Montelibano told the DAILY STAR after meeting with Mayors Esteban Coscolluela of Murcia and Jose Montelibano of Silay City and Vice Mayor Nicholas Yulo of Bago City at L'Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City .

Don Salvador Benedicto Mayor Marxlen de la Cruz sent a representative while Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia was represented by the City Legal Office staff.

Montelibano said aside from informing the officials of the CENECO contract with KEPCO-Salcon, he also discussed with them the plans to source power from PNOC-Energy Development Corp., First Farmers Holding Corp., and Hawaiian-Philippine Company to meet CENECO's demand for power after 2010 when its contract with the National Power Corp. will expire.

He said the common consensus was lack of power supply and that CENECO needs to look for sources.

Coscoluella, for his part, told the DAILY STAR that as a mayor, his concern is the cost of power.

It should be power supply security but at a cost that will not hurt the consumers, he said.

Coscolluela said he will not touch on the environmental issue because there is government agency that can address such concern.

He added that he understands the position of the CENECO board in taking up the offer of KEPCO-Salcon to supply the cooperative 40 megawatts of power starting 2011, considering that CENECO has not received offers from other power suppliers.

But he said there are still other issues that should be addressed such as alternative sources of power.

Coscolluela's town, Murcia, partly hosts the Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant, which oppositors of the CENECO-KEPCO contract believe should be the main source of CENECO's power supply.*NLG

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