The Board member of Benguet declared National Electric Administration (NEA) -appointed Supervisor Atty. Omar Mayo as Persona anon Grata during their session today.
The decision was reached after the board invited Atty. Mayo and NEA-appointed General Manager (GM) Marie Rafael. Thirteen voted in favor while Board Member Bernard Waclin abstained. They however deferred the decision on Rafael to be deliberated at their next session on Monday, November 8, to give them time to verify the veracity of her statements.
The pending vote depends on further information needed by the council, particularly footage from the Oct. 18, 2021 armed take-over, and may or may not include a declaration of persona non grata for Atty. Rafael in the province of Benguet.
BM Nazaro explained that Rafael was not included in today’s PNG vote because they still have to verify if she was really present during the 3:00am forcible take-over.
“We still have a pending resolution to declare here persona non grata if it will be proven that she lied, and that she was really present during the 3:00am raid,” Nazaro said.
During the deliberation, several Board Members (BM) expressed their condemnation of the raid done by Atty. Mayo’s team on October 18 damaging BENECO properties disrupting the work of engineers monitoring the SCADA. They have also disabled the surveillance system and took possession of the hard drives containing surveillance footage.
BM Nazaro made a plea to Atty. Mayo that no such take over or raid will once again happen in the future to keep the peace and not disrupt the services of BENECO. BM Nestor Fongwan, Jr. also urge Mayo to separate the issue on their accusations of irregularity in the financial status of BENECO with that of the qualifications of the GMs and the uncalled for dawn raid that disrupted services.
Fongwan however urged them to file a case if they do have evidences of irregularities. Fongwan openly declared his dislike of Mayo for meddling with BENECO. “Atty. Mayo, for me personally, you are not welcome here in Benguet,” said Fongwan.
Several Board Members have also made their plea to Atty. Banaag to give-up her claim as the NEA-appointed general manager to keep the peace in Benguet.
