BAGUIO CITY: Some members of the Senate committee on finance chided newly installed National Electrification Administration (NEA) Administrator Emmanuel Juanesa for the agency's failure to allegedly instill stability in the leadership of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco), one of the country's top-performing electric cooperatives, when it insisted on appointing an unqualified and unrecommended applicant for the position of general manager.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, pointed out that NEA had no authority to interfere with the affairs of Beneco in the appointment of its general manager because it was not an ailing electric cooperative. Thus, it was the prerogative of the board of directors to appoint the general manager.