Partners for Affordable and Reliable Energy (PARE), a leading consumer advocacy group, has called on the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to overhaul its electric cooperative performance evaluation system.
The group asserts that the current framework fails to reflect the actual quality of service consumers experience daily.
The demand follows the release of NEA’s 2025 Overall Performance Assessment, which awarded the highest “AAA” classification to 91 cooperatives and praised several others for improved metrics. However, PARE highlights a stark disconnect: many of these top-rated cooperatives remain the subject of rampant consumer complaints regarding prolonged brownouts, unreliable service, high system losses, sluggish disaster response, and soaring electricity rates.
According to PARE, consumers are increasingly baffled by the divide between glowing official reports and the realities of their power supply.
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PALECO: Upgraded from AA to AAA status, yet continues to face severe reliability issues.
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MOELCI I: Improved from A to AA status despite persistent service interruptions.
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BATELEC II & FICELCO: Maintained their AAA ratings amid ongoing consumer frustration over affordability and performance. “Consumers are not interested in whether their cooperative is AAA on paper. They want to know why they still face brownouts, high system losses, unreliable service, and rising costs,” said Nic Satur Jr., Chief Advocate Officer of PARE. “The ultimate measure of performance should be the actual experience of consumers, not a rating in a report.”
PARE acknowledges that NEA’s current evaluation framework focuses heavily on financial, operational, technical, and institutional compliance. While these metrics are valuable for corporate auditing, they fail to capture the economic and domestic hardships faced by households, businesses, and agricultural sectors when the power goes out.
The group warns that this “credibility gap” is actively undermining public trust in government assessments. In some franchise areas, the disconnect has turned into a community joke.
“In PALECO, frustrated consumer Tony Cabrestante mockingly called the AAA rating ‘Araw Araw Ara Kuryente’ (Every Day, No Electricity) because of the recurring interruptions,” Satur added. “The remark may be humorous, but it reflects deeper frustration.”
To restore integrity to the rating system, PARE urges the NEA to modernize its criteria by directly integrating consumer-centric metrics. The group recommends that future assessments include:
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Direct Consumer Satisfaction Ratings and feedback mechanisms.
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Complaint Resolution Efficiency tracking.
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Restoration Speed and performance during and after natural calamities.
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AGMA (Annual General Membership Assembly) Compliance and organizational transparency measures.
As the agency mandated to oversee and support these cooperatives, NEA must ensure that its technical assistance, financial aid, and regulatory oversight yield tangible improvements on the ground.
“The question consumers ask is simple: If a cooperative receives a high rating, why are they still experiencing prolonged brownouts, unreliable service, and expensive rates? Until that is answered, the evaluation system will remain in doubt,” Satur concluded. “Consumers deserve a rating system that reflects reality, not just paperwork.”
