The PS

There’s just no room for a Project Supervisor in BENECO.

The GM issue is internal and I join the chorus of those who assail the propriety of naming one for the electric cooperative. I, for one, was taken aback when the preventive suspension order included the designation of Atty. Omar Mayo, a friend of mine, as the PS. I have nothing against Sir Omar, ever the assertive lawyer that he is, except for his designation.

First, the timing is just bad. Second, the entry further muddled the story. And third, it created the impression that BENECO is ailing.

Why wrong timing? Coz the AGMA is just two minutes away and I do hope the PS would not disturb the same. I do pray that he would let the AGMA take off as a matter of course.

How did the coming of a PS muddle further the story? Coz there’s the GM impasse which was supposed to be a war in terms of law and cases. Both camps are courting their own supporters but the tide is in favor of Sir Melchor. The PS comes as an off-beat character whose presence might net the opposite. The prevailing perception is that the PS will hand the seat of the GM to the lady lawyer to the prejudice of the gentleman engineer.

What’s the wrong impression? A PS is often designated to an EC that is considered ailing. But BENECO is far from such category. BENECO’s technical operations remain A1. Its books are from financial distress. And there’s the CWO, dominated by ladies whose voices are very disarming, that continuously addresses the complaints and requests of MCOs 24/7.

NEA BOA Resolution No. 2021-87 practically let in the NEA, through the PS, to the very doors of South Drive. The main purpose was obvious from 2021-87 itself – “address the ongoing conflict and standoff on the BENECO leadership and organizational management issues and concerns.” But the eagle eyed employees know and feel that such task would detour towards the other camp.

That’s why we can’t blame the employees to stonewall, physically and figuratively. That’s why we can’t stop the deluge of MCOs who painstakingly took the day off, lobbied in front of the South Drive office and held their placards of protest, just to express their own conviction. I salute them. And I am deeply touched.

This simply means that fence sitters are no longer a fad. Be one and you will be tagged as passe.

Too bad I can’t set an inch of my foot there to help. I feel helpless. Hapless. This Covid thing just shackled me to my confines.

Sir Omar, please understand why I will greet you from the opposite side of the fence. Blame the virus. Blame the NEA BOA that until now refuses to understand the phrase “The list of applicants who passed the NEA Board final interview, with necessary information and results of the Background Investigation, shall then be transmitted to the EC Board for perusal and selection.”