Calling for MORE Power-ILECO-I joint venture

By Herbert Vego

IT has been two months since the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) of Pavia, Iloilo passed a resolution dated August 14, 2024 urging MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to ink a joint venture agreement (JVA) with the Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO) I.

When I asked MORE Power President/CEO Roel Z. Castro about it, he said he had not yet responded to the proposal, obviously because he could not do it without a reciprocal response from the management of ILECO-I.

Anyway, if the residents of Pavia are anxious to shift to MORE Power as their favored distribution utility, why not? That is already possible by virtue of a new law now being implemented, RA 11918, which would extend MORE Power’s coverage to Passi City and 15 municipalities of Iloilo, including Pavia.

In fact, the linemen of MORE Power are now installing power lines in Pavia and Santa Barbara, and accepting applications for electrical connections.

It goes without saying that MORE Power may now compete with ILECO branches for customers in 14 other municipalities covered by the said law, namely Alimodian, Leganes, Leon, New Lucena, San Miguel, Santa Barbara, and Zarraga in the 2nd District of Iloilo, as well as Anilao, Banate, Barotac Nuevo, Dingle, Duenas, Dumangas and San Enrique in the 4th District of Iloilo.

Right now, MORE Power offers the lowest residential electricity rate of P11.0432 per kilowatt-hour, as against ILECO-I’s P14.5590. In fairness, though, power rates fluctuate. There are times when electric cooperatives charge lower rates, usually depending on generation costs charged by contracted power plants.

ILECO-1 has 175,000 customers at present. Since MORE Power has hit the 100,000 mark – a big leap from 62,000 when it took over from Panay Electric in 2020 – a joint venture would result in 275,000 customers.

Applying the principle of economies of scale – the greater the quantity of output produced, the lower the per-unit fixed cost – a joint venture agreement would be beneficial to all stakeholders.

The resolution for a joint venture between MORE Power and ILECO-1 was inspired by the successful joint venture between Primelectric Holdings Inc. (a subsidiary of MORE) and Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO).  Their merger gave birth to Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC).

Prior to the merger, CENECO, which has 210,000 customers, was in the red, owing the National Electrification Administration about P60 million in accumulated loans, plus P200 million from various banks.

The joint venture enabled CENECO to pay all debts and saved it from bankruptcy.

-oOo-

WHAT’S WRONG WITH VP SARA?

THE social media is awash with conjectures that Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio has gone crazy due to depression, which springs from fear that she might never be president of this country.

To recap, she threatened to dig up the cadaver of the late former President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr.at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and throw it into the West Philippine Sea; and visualized herself beheading President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr.

No person in her right mind desecrates the memory of the dead just like that.

While President Ferdinand Jr. has so far remained silent, many administration officials have asked the VP to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist before she gets worse.

VP Sara was sourgraping because Congress had slashed the P1.3-billion budget of the Office of Vice President (OVP) for fiscal year 2025, pegging it at only P733 million instead.

The bigger reason that drove her to go ballistics was the alleged failure of BBM to fulfill the promises he had made to her during the campaign for the May 2022 election.

More correctly, she had not been promised. She had asked to be named Secretary of Defense; and to be authorized to use of the presidential plane whenever she would go home to Davao on weekends.

She is a woman scorned. We would not be surprised if she spills out more beans, this time aimed at questioning the legitimacy of BBM’s win for presidency over then VP Leni Robredo in 2022.