By Francis Allan L. Angelo 

TWO managing supervisors from the National Electrification Administration (NEA) arrived at Electric Cooperative (Ileco 3) head office yesterday to start overseeing the cooperative’s operations.

The supervisors, Engr. Danny Sedoyo and Ed Adlao, were tasked to oversee Ileco 3 following the recommendation of a NEA fact finding team that investigated the power supply agreement (PSA) with Applied Research Technologies Philippines Inc. (Artech).

The designation of project supervisors was one of the recommendations of Atty. Omar Mayo, NEA Legal Department chief, who headed the fact-finding team.

Sources from Ileco 3 and NEA said the supervisors will start their tasks today by reviewing transactions and monitoring the cooperative’s operations.

The NEA supervisors will also attend the regular meeting of the Ileco 3 board of directors Saturday to present a letter ordering the “deactivation” of the board, the sources said.

“Once the board is deactivated, it will only act as an advisory body and will have no power to decide on policies and transactions of the cooperative,” an Ileco 3 source said.   

The NEA also ordered the start of a formal investigation on the alleged bribery that attended the approval and signing of the Artech-Ileco 3 power supply deal.

The NEA administration committee (AdCom) will lead the investigation that will make the Ileco 3 board explain its action prior to the approval of the deal.

The AdCom failed to convene and act on Mayo’s recommendation because Energy Sec. Angelo Reyes was out of the country. Reyes is a member of the NEA board of administrators.

Former Judge Mateo Baldoza, Ileco 3 board president, said in an interview with Aksyon Radyo last May 5 that he received P75,000 from Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. during a meeting with Artech officials April 17 at the governor’s house in Jaro, Iloilo City.

He later modified his statements saying a female Artech worker gave the money at Tupas’ house.

Baldoza said he received another P75,000 cash from an Artech employee after the approval and signing of the 25-year PSA with Artech last April 21 in Iloilo City.

The NEA fact-finding team said the PSA must be rescinded due to its “grossly disadvantageous and prejudicial” provisions.

The NEA probers also found out that bribery may have taken place prior to the signing of the contract.

The finding was based on the sworn affidavit of Ileco 3 director Rene Arandilla and Baldoza’s radio interview with Askyon Radyo.

Arandilla claimed in his sworn affidavit that he saw and counted the money that Baldoza received on April 21 at Fine Rock Hotel.

While Baldoza changed his tune on who gave him money at Tupas’s house, his recantation “cannot obliterate the fact of bribery” in the deal.