MORE Power honored for Iloilo police partnership

ILOILO CITY — The Iloilo City Police Office recognized MORE Electric and Power Corp. as one of its key community partners during the culmination of the 31st Police Community Relations Month.

The ceremony brought together police personnel, stakeholders, and partner organizations as the city police honored outstanding stations and groups that supported its public-safety programs.

MORE Power President and CEO Roel Z. Castro was among the guests and speakers at the event.

Castro credited cooperation between law enforcement agencies, communities, and private organizations for helping reduce crime and electricity pilferage in Iloilo City.

The partnership highlights how community-based policing can address problems that affect both public safety and household expenses.

Illegal electrical connections can endanger communities, damage power facilities, and increase system losses that may affect electricity costs and service reliability.

Castro said both index and non-index crimes in Iloilo City declined from 2024 to 2025.

Iloilo City Police Office records showed that index crimes fell by 31%, while non-index crimes decreased by 10%, according to Castro.

Index crimes generally cover serious offenses such as murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, and vehicle theft.

Non-index crimes include violations of special laws and other offenses not classified among the major crime categories.

“This may not happen if it is not because of the relationship that police officers have with their stakeholders. It is just fitting that the ceremony that we celebrated is the culmination of the Police Community Relations Month that really highlights the effectiveness of the programs that are still being implemented. And these are very effective,” says Castro.

Castro cited the campaign against illegal electrical connections as one of the strongest examples of collaboration between the police and MORE Power.

During the initial phase of MORE Power’s five-year development plan, the distribution utility coordinated closely with the Philippine National Police while inspecting villages across Iloilo City.

Castro said system losses in some barangays had reached as high as 60%.

The heavily affected areas contributed to an overall system loss of 30% when MORE Power took over the city’s electricity distribution operations.

System loss refers to electricity lost while passing through a distribution network because of technical factors or nontechnical causes such as pilferage and meter tampering.

Distribution utilities may recover system-loss costs from consumers only up to limits approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

The ERC set the distribution feeder system-loss cap for private distribution utilities at 5.5%. (

Castro said dialogue with people caught tampering with electrical connections demonstrated the importance of police-community relations and private-sector cooperation.

MORE Power, the police, and barangay officials worked together to identify the causes of widespread electricity pilferage in the city.

The power distributor also sought assistance from the Iloilo City Government to ease application requirements for residents seeking legal electrical connections.

Castro said the combined approach produced a sharp decline in system loss.

MORE Power’s system loss has fallen from 30% to 3.83%, below the ERC cap of 5.5%.

The reduction means a larger share of electricity purchased by the distribution utility reaches paying consumers instead of being lost through network inefficiencies or unauthorized connections.

“From somebody who really felt the effect of the program of having this effective community involvement again, as shown by the numbers from 30% systems loss down to 3.83%. The programs help and cooperate with each other. From the side of our officers in uniform, let us understand why it is happening. Those learning should come from the affected of those victims, should come from the community, and as well as sa atin,” says Castro.

Castro attributed the improvement to programs that have continued from the start of MORE Power’s rehabilitation and anti-pilferage campaign.

“I’d like to congratulate the Iloilo City Police Office for a very remarkable outstanding performance for bringing down index crimes. With that, congratulations to Col. Parilla and to all the men and women of the police force,” he added.

Iloilo City Police Office Director Col. Wilbert B. Parilla thanked MORE Power and the agency’s other partners for supporting efforts to maintain peace and order.

“The success of every police-community relations program is a testament to the collective efforts of our police personnel and our community partners. This recognition reflects our shared commitment to building stronger partnerships founded on trust, accountability, and genuine public service. Together, we will continue to uphold our mission of keeping Iloilo City safe, peaceful, and resilient,” Police Colonel Parilla said.

MORE Power reaffirmed its commitment to work with the Iloilo City Police Office in promoting public safety while providing reliable electricity service to consumers.