Darkest before dawn

By Limuel S. Celebria

“It is said that the darkest hour of night comes just before the dawn” – Thomas Fuller,  English scholar, preacher, and author.

REACTING to a media post on social media platform, facebook, on complaints over recent power interruptions here, a certain Meliton Oso wrote:

“Doing maintenance works is good pero kung sunod sunod ang maintenance na tag 13 hours gd kada ubra hindi na ina chakto. Labi na guid na ka init pa subong sang tiempo. Wala labot sa maintenance, many of my Church goers are already complaining na hindi man amo ni ka grabe sako brown out sang una. Not to mention na nag dugay na guid ang response time para mag balik ang kuryente. Daw ka nami man sang pag advertise kung sa social media pero ang realidad is nag pigado na guid ang serbisyo halin sa pag take over na hindi man husto to begin with. Remember God’s justice will always prevail and it does not choose subjectively. He will give it to those deserving of it.”

Many believe Meliton Oso, the author of the fb post, is none other than the Very Rev. Msgr. Meliton Oso, a ranking member of the Jaro Archdiocese and Chairman of the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center.

Fr. Oso’s post, if indeed it were him, seemed to inject new life on those opposing the takeover of Iloilo City’s age-old power distributor, Panay Electric Company (PECO), by More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE). They seemed to be saying that if even a priest has begun to condemn MORE’s takeover of PECO then nothing can be more wrong.

Fr. Oso was even invoking Divine Justice against those who put MORE in place of PECO! I can just imagine a local RTC Judge, members of Congress, Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission officials as well as the owners of MORE cringing in fear of being excommunicated by the Catholic Church or, worse, having their souls end up in hell come Judgment Day.

But religion and affairs of state do not mix. Fr. Oso will admit that even our Constitution says so. Who is he then to say that the take-over of Peco operations by More is “hindi man husto (incorrect) to begin with?” What is the basis for Fr. Oso’s judgment, Canon Law?

Apparently, Fr. Oso also considered as “hindi na ina chakto (improper)” the 12 to 13 hour power interruptions that certain sections of the city suffered when MORE recently undertook “preventive maintenance” activities on power substations in Molo and Jaro. Somebody should tell Fr. Oso that fixing a substation takes time and involves a lot of work. Even more so if the substation hasn’t undergone any maintenance work in nearly a decade. (For those who are not familiar, preventive maintenance schedules in electric distribution systems are done annually.) Fr. Oso may be an expert on fixing souls, but I wouldn’t ask him to fix my coffee-maker.

But enough of Fr. Oso’s inanities.

Republic Act 11212, passed by Congress in December 2018 and signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in February 2019, granted MORE the franchise to distribute power to Iloilo City’s electric consumers in lieu of PECO. But MORE was unable to take over because of the legal obstacles that PECO threw along the way. Some have ended up in the Supreme Court.

It was only in late February this year – a full year after receiving its franchise, that MORE was able to mobilize after Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras of the lloilo Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 ordered the court sheriffs to serve a writ of possession (WOP) to PECO aimed at turning over the distribution utility to MORE Power “to ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity.” Consumers will note that MORE’s official billing cycle began on February 29, the date the WOP was issued.

Subsequently, when PECO’s Certificate of Public Convenience issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission expired last March, the same was granted to MORE. For all intents and purposes, PECO as a power distribution company, has ceased to exist. Even The city government has canceled the business permit it issued to PECO this year.

PECO has been in the business of distributing power to Iloilo City for nearly 100 years. It claims, not without reason, to have contributed to the growth and development of the city. But, for decades, too, PECO has been at the receiving end of numerous complaints – excessive rates, dilapidated facilities, anti-consumer policies, non-refund of deposits, illegal billing. It is a jarring litany of complaints and grievances that fell on PECO’s deaf ears but have finally resounded in the halls of congress thus blunting PECO’s bid for a renewal of its franchise.

But MORE is not in an enviable position either. It has inherited from PECO a decrepit, dilapidated system. When MORE conducted a “thermal scan” of the distribution system prior to taking over operations, it found some 900 hotspots, meaning potentially dangerous areas that need immediate attention and repair. Numerous transformers are leaking, many are overloaded and have burned circuits, and more are too old and needs to be replaced. Not to mention many poles leaning this way and that.

It became apparent that, in the past decade, at least, PECO was more engaged in profit-taking and less on investing on maintenance and repair. The prolonged (but scheduled and pre announced) brown outs resulting from MOREs repair of the substations in Jaro, Molo, and soon the City Proper is a product of PECO’s neglect.

MORE is just beginning to correct faults and disrepair in the system resulting from PECO’s decades of neglect. Things may get a little worse before they can begin to get better. Or, than Fr. Oso himself would probably say: “It is always darkest before dawn.”