GENERAL SANTOS CITY (March 23) — The South Cotabato Electric Cooperative II (Socoteco II) is pushing back hard against claims of financial and operational trouble—but persistent power issues are keeping pressure on the utility.
Facing the city council, acting general manager Cherry Joie Lima-Ponce dismissed reports of outages, stalled infrastructure upgrades, and unpaid obligations, insisting the cooperative remains stable and fully compliant.
“All obligations have been duly met,” she said, rejecting the narrative that Socoteco II is an “ailing cooperative” and stressing that its operations have been transparent.
She also brushed aside a reported joint venture bid from Ignite Power Corp., saying it has “no basis” and will not move forward.
On paper, the numbers support her case. Socoteco II earns about ₱500 million monthly, with roughly ₱300 million going to power suppliers. It also claims one of the lowest electricity rates in Mindanao at ₱8.59 per kilowatt-hour.
But beyond the balance sheet, the picture is less settled.
Consumers continue to report unstable power supply, and the cooperative’s system loss rate remains above the regulatory threshold—a red flag that points to inefficiencies in distribution, whether from technical losses or pilferage.
The disconnect is stark: a utility that says it is financially sound is still grappling with service reliability on the ground.
For Socoteco II, the issue is no longer just reputation. Until outages ease and losses are brought under control, official assurances may struggle to outweigh the daily experience of consumers left in the dark.
