PECO INSISTS RIVAL LACKS CPCN

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE) of ports and gambling magnate Enrique Razon does not have a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN), contrary to what it has been announcing the past few days, according to its rival Panay Electric Co. (PECO)

This and other alleged irregularities were uncovered during a hearing involving representatives of MORE and PECO, the long-time power distributor in Iloilo, at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) offices on March 11, 2020.

ERC hearing officer Atty. Ma. Corazon Gines officially confirmed that MORE has no CPCN and that no official order has been signed to grant one at this moment.

A CPCN is needed before a company can operate power distribution services in an area.

The March 5, 2020 letter stating the ERC’s decision to revoke PECO’s CPCN and grant MORE Power a provisional authority was brandished by MORE legal counsel Carlo Verzo on March 6.

But Verzo admitted during the ERC hearing that he received the letter on March 5 but refused to disclose how and from whom he got the copy, invoking “lawyer-client privilege.”

It was confirmed during the hearing that his copy was not officially received.

Gines acknowledged that MORE never furnished the ERC a copy of the addendum to the Writ of Possession issued by Iloilo Regional Trial Court Judge Emerald Contreras which clearly states that PECO will still operate the contested power distribution facilities.

Following MORE’s takeover of five PECO substations on Feb 28, Judge Contreras issued an order on March 6 directing the former to return control of the facilities to PECO.

Both the addendum and the March 6 order of strict adherence to the addendum were only presented to the ERC on March 11, the day of the hearing.

“This just proves what we’ve been saying for weeks. That this is an illegal corporate takeover. They blatantly lied to the ERC, and took advantage of their confusion,” PECO legal counsel Estrella Elamparo said.

The inspection team sent by the ERC to draft a report for the March 2 hearing only met with MORE personnel, who informed the inspectors that they were in complete control of the distribution facilities despite Judge Contreras’s order that PECO will retain the operations.

The ocular inspection was the basis for ERC’s March 5 letter but is not part of the records of the case and is nowhere to be found.

MORE also allegedly failed to inform the ERC that it sent letters to PECO’s existing subscribers informing them that all payments for next month’s cycle should be paid to MORE, despite the fact that it lacks a CPCN that allows it to do so.

PECO continues to nominate power for Iloilo City until now and submitted Wholesale Electric Spot Market (WESM) bills and Day-Ahead Nominations of power as proof that MORE was attempting to charge consumers for electricity that PECO had purchased.

“They tried to forcibly takeover our facilities, then they tried to deceive consumers that they were the ones supplying power,” PECO Head of Public Engagement and Government Relations Marcelo Cacho said.

“Now it’s been officially confirmed that they never had the right. Now they’ve been exposed.”