PECO: We will not give up on Iloilo, consumers

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

Against all odds, the management of embattled Panay Electric Company (PECO) declared that they will not bow out easily.

“We’re not gonna give up on Iloilo. We’re not gonna give up on the consumers,” Marcelo Cacho, PECO’s head of Public Engagement and Government Affairs, said in a press conference Saturday.

Cacho made the declaration, as he accused rival company, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) of trying to sequester properties like tools, materials, and vehicles, that were allegedly not part of the Writ of Possession (WOP).

On Feb. 28, 2020, the writ was served to PECO’s main office in General Luna Street, City Proper, Iloilo City.

Cacho was joined by lawyer Estrella Elamparo, the company’s legal counsel, in Saturday’s press conference outside PECO’s main office.

More than an hour before that, PECO posted on its Facebook page that “MORE personnel together with the Iloilo RTC Sheriffs and PNP have threateningly broken into all of PECO’s substations without following the 5-day notice to vacate as well as other rules and guidelines of the law.”

The PECO statement added that “so many matters are still pending in the courts, most especially the Supreme Court, and despite that the Iloilo branch 23 RTC Judge (Emerald Requina) Contreras has issued orders that have resulted in multiple damaging actions which we will seek to clarify and rectify through the upcoming hearing.”

But amid the takeover by MORE Power assets through the WOP, Elamparo said that the legal moves they are taking are not considered as moot and academic.

“This issue will just be settled once the Supreme Court has already issued a ruling on the constitutionality of the expropriation because if the Supreme Court says that the expropriation is unconstitutional, everything will be undone,” she said.

Elamparo added, “every property that they have occupied will have to be returned. That’s why we are imploring the lower court to just wait for the ruling of the Supreme Court because there would be fewer complications.”

She said it would be so complicated later on if the findings would rule in their favor.

“Secondly, our prayer for TRO with the Court of Appeals not just covers acts which have yet to happen,” she said.

Elamparo explained that a temporary restraining order (TRO), in legal terms, is supposed to restore the status quo ante, which means “the status before all these irregularities occurred and that status of the time is PECO was in complete control and possession of the substations.”

She also cited another legal remedy which is a preliminary mandatory injunction.

“They can still be mandated by the Court of Appeals through a provisional relief to vacate the premises if that becomes necessary. But hopefully, our prayer for TRO is sufficient for that purpose,” she said.

 

NO CPCN 

Physically, MORE Power may have physically taken over the substations but Cacho said they are just in possession, not ownership.

Also, he said the fact remains that their rival firm has no certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN).

A CPCN is a regulatory compliance certification for public service industries.

Elamparo said that it’s one of the other Ano Ali of the implementation of the WOP: allowing More Power to operate the electric distribution facilities without a CPCN.

“That means they’re unauthorized to do so. A CPCN is different from a franchise. So right now, while PECO may not have a franchise under Republic Act (RA) 11212, it is authorized to continue operating and it is authorized to secure a CPCN from the Energy Regulation Commission, and the ERC has issued a CPCN,” she said.

Republic Act No. 11212 granted More Electric and Power Corp. (More Power), a 25-year power distribution franchise in Iloilo City.

“More, on the other hand, while it may have a franchise, it wasn’t granted a CPCN,” Elamparo said citing again what she claimed as haphazard and reckless moves.

“What happens now is MORE is given control. So it’s very anomalous,” she said.

 

POWER SUPPLY 

Currently, Cacho said that the actual energy being supplied to the city is from PECO and their existing contracts with the Global Business Power Corporation (GBP).

A leading independent power producer in the Visayas region and Mindoro Island, GBP owns 11 power generation facilities. The largest clean coal-fired power plants located in Iloilo City are operated by Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC), with a total capacity of 314 MW.

Cacho said they’re still nominating power with GBP. In order to get a certain power supply, PECO has to nominate capacity two hours before you will consume it.

Citing the takeover was haphazardly-done, Cacho claimed to be unsure what would happen in instances of power interruptions now that More has the control of the substations.

“They might have taken the assets physically but I guess technically there’s not much of an answer. We can’t answer for MORE. But we give assurance again that while our contacts are in effect we won’t cut off with the contract and we wont to keep the people in darkness,” he said.

Cacho added, “I’m not sure what MORE wants to do but… we share your concern also. We share your fears. I don’t want the power (supply) to be cut off in my house,” he said.

Cacho said there are questions that the court needs to answer,  like them not operating the substations but still nominating energy from its supplier.

“These are things that should have been threshed out,” he said.

 

ADDENDUM VIOLATION 

Judge Contreras set six guidelines in the addendum to the writ of implementation.

First, the writ should be served in a peaceful manner.

But what happened on Friday, Elamparo said, was trespassing.

“There was no peace. They forced themselves in,” she said.

The second guideline states that “to install MORE who may deploy their personnel to man and oversee the substations to exercise their possession and control of the distribution facilities, but the operation should still be handled by PECO personnel who has the technical expertise.”

But that, too, was violated, since MORE has taken over the substation instead of them observing with PECO still handling the operation, Elamparo said.

“Under the addendum, there was supposed to be a transition period, and in that transition period, PECO personnel will continue to man and control the substation, although it would allow MORE people to be there to observe,” she said.

Third, “to maintain the status quo of the operations, so as to give time for MORE to orient/train/immerse their personnel, before they fully take control of the operation.

The sixth guideline directed both parties to submit to the court their respective proposal as to their respective timeline on transition period; accounting; turnover of records like list of consumers; documents relevant to the operation of the distribution system among others; inventory of personnel properties under Category A; and inventory of real properties already under the possession of More.

“The addendum states the need for the parties to submit their timelines for a smooth turn over. Those were all disregarded. Now, they just evicted everybody. All the personnel of PECO from the substations. They forced their way and there’s even no talk of transition anymore,” Elamparo said

This is the reason why MORE wants PECO consumers to apply again.

“They want the consumers to go through the tedious process of application. They may have the meters, the wires but they don’t know who the meters belong to,” Cacho said.

He said their other legal counsel Guillermo Alcantara was present in all of these issues.

“They have a verbal argument with the lawyers of More and the sheriffs that each substation of Panay Electric will be operated by Panay Electric with one observer from More just to observe until the court could issue another order,” he said.

But when they got to the final substation, which is in Gen. Luna Street, Cacho said MORE lawyers reneged on that agreement.

“Again, that’s another lie from them,” he said.

Elamparo said there seems to be a total disregard of the consumer.

“It seems there’s a total disregard for rules, regulation and basically common decency already,” she said.

Elamparo also said that she talked with the sheriff over the phone during the serving of the WOP.

“I told the sheriff, I thought we had an agreement. We already agreed to have one More representative per substation subject to certain conditions that that person will have no camera or any phone, etcetera, etcetera. I asked him what happened to that agreement?” she said.

But Elamparo said the sheriff told him that the lawyers of MORE were insisting otherwise.

“And my question was: Bakit po kayo nagpapadikta? And apparently, they couldn’t do anything with More dictating what was to be done yesterday (Friday),” she said.

 

SHOW OF FORCE 

Elamparo has scored what she labeled as a show of force.

She recounted that things began to unravel Thursday, the day after they received the order for the Writ of Possession.

“On Friday morning, the execution (of WOP) and we found out, through reliable sources that as the days began to unravel here in Iloilo, somebody arrived, flew in last Thursday. We have information that it is no less than the owner of More,” she said.

Elamparo did not mention a name but she was apparently referring to ports and casino tycoon Enrique Razon.

“This whole thing cries for more questions as to why this grand production happened all of a sudden. It was really a well-coordinated, well-orchestrated show of force,” she said.

Elamparo said that what could be a coincidence that the “owner of MORE” flew in a day before the WOP execution.

During the press conference, it was also asked if they received reports that Contreras went on a “secret meeting” with Razon.

“‘Yun po ang ikinatatakot namin. Hindi po natin alam kung ano ang source ng information na yan. That’s our worst fear. If it’s true, that explains a lot of things,” she said.

 

INHIBITION

PECO has apparently sought the inhibition if Judge Contreras from the case on the main grounds of bias and partiality.

“Bias and partiality in favor of MORE because as what I said, we were kept in the dark deliberately up to the very last minute whether there was a writ or not,” Elamparo said.

Whereas, “our opponent had apparently (known of the writ) days before and was able to come up with a grand production yesterday,” she said.

They were allegedly told by that court that they’ve been instructed not to divulge anything to them.

“And also because she issued the order granting the writ, despite that there was a suspension order issued by the previous judge. She disregarded that completely. And the fact that she issued that order despite the pendency of our petition, as well as pendency the appeal for More with the Supreme Court. All these circumstances, taken together, lead us to the conclusion that she can no longer be impartial in handling the case,” Elamparo said.

 

ISSUES ON RAZON’S PROFILE 

Cacho has also discussed during the press conference the disconnection of WiFi by MORE personnel whom he claimed might not be a technical expert on such thing.

But other than that, they also discussed Razon’s track record in doing business, especially the takeover of another business by Razon’s firm.

“We see a pattern and our fear is in fact that pattern will continue – electric cooperatives, other businesses, water. It already happened. What’s next? If this travesty of justice happening in Iloilo will not be stopped, what’s to stop him and them from continuing with this modus?” Elamparo said.

Earlier, Razon’s firm was reported to be eyeing a port project in Iloilo.

But given that he doesn’t want to build the facility for his own power firm, Cacho is not discounting that same might also happen with the project.

Cacho said that since Razon’s firm also operates a casino, it’s not at all farfetched that he will be expanding his casino business to Iloilo City.

After all, he said the area has a robust tourism industry.

“We have world-class facilities. It’s very attractive,” he said.

But on top of business, Cacho said in Razon, “just check his international track record – his abuses on the labor union personnel that work for him. I guess we’ll have to say dictatorship,” he said.

Cacho said that the way Razon deals with his personnel will speak volumes on how he will deal with his customers.