LEGAZPI CITY—Nearly four years after the National Electrification Administration privatized the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco), a provincial board member said residents of Albay may file a class suit against the San Miguel-controlled Albay Power and Energy Corp.
Board Member Rolly Rosal said Albayanos have found it “unbearable” that the province continues to suffer from daily intermittent and random brownouts and even a weekly whole-day power outage under Apec’s tenure.
Aleco Union officials have also accused Apec of incompetence in troubleshooting even minor power problems, Rosal said. This has led about 230,000 Apec customers to consider a class-action suit, citing the “deafening silence” of the province government executives and its five lawmakers “who all stood united for the speedy privatization of Aleco to spare Albay from total blackout.”
Rosal is the younger brother of Legazpi Mayor Noel Rosal, who together with then-governor Joey Sarte Salceda were among the key figures in 2013 in pushing for Aleco’s privatization into Apec with San Miguel, which inherited P4 billion in debts of the old electric cooperative.
