PECO’s ‘black propaganda’ untenable

By Herbert Vego

WHAT does Panay Electric Co. (PECO) hope to accomplish by sponsoring a front-page “news” on unnamed Iloilo City residents “incensed by the seemingly unending prolonged and frequent power outages”?

The allegation contradicts the opinion of Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, who told us that the new power franchisee, MORE Electric and Power Corp.’s (MORE Power), had no choice but temporarily shut off one of the five substations at a time to prevent permanent damage.

“Corrective maintenance,” said MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro on the Aksyon Radyo program Tribuna sang Banwa last Sunday, referring to the day’s work on La Paz substation that necessitated power interruption.

By blaming MORE Power, PECO was throwing a boomerang. Everybody knows that MORE Power has merely taken over the bulok or dilapidated distribution utility from PECO by virtue of the expropriation process provided by the law (RA 11212) signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on February 14, 2019. By then, PECO’s franchise had expired.

MORE Power as the succeeding distribution utility could have immediately taken over were it not for PECO’s dilatory move questioning the constitutionality of the expropriation provision of the law. It was only on February 29 this year that MORE Power took over.

If PECO had done no upkeep of its decades-old substations in that one-year extension, it could be because of awareness that its days were numbered. So why not let the next player bear the wrath of the power consumers?

Lack of experience and incompetence could not be convincingly cited against MORE Power because half of its 122 technicians used to work for PECO on contractual status.

Before his transfer to MORE Power, Castro had served as pioneer president of the highly successful Palm Concepcion Power Corporation in Concepcion, Iloilo.

There is more than meets the eye to MORE Power’s assurance of “modernization” within the next three years through the purchase of new equipment. It is no secret that the dynamo behind this company is billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., the third richest Filipino.

I remember a column written by Sunstar columnist Neil Honeyman on November 14, 2018, alleging that Razon had offered to buy PECO from the Cacho family for P6 billion, only to be turned down. Neither PECO nor MORE Power, however, confirmed that column item.

By that time, the House committee on legislative franchises had junked the application of PECO for renewal of franchise, mainly due to some 1800 pending complaints from consumers over poor services and overcharging of electricity bills; and approved instead the application of MORE Power.

The law as finalized (RA 11212) ordered MORE Power to pay PECO P482 million (rounded off) in “just compensation,” based on the latter’s latest tax declaration. However, it remains for the court of law to decide on the sufficiency of the offered compensation which is now in escrow at Landbank.

Since it was Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras of the lloilo Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 who had tried the expropriation case and had issued the writ of possession that led to the takeover of the distribution utility, she would also have to decide on “just compensation.”

PECO may agree or disagree, since the amount is subject to the final decision by the judge based on evidence to be presented. The court requires each player to nominate three “commissioners”  to participate in the second phase.

The refusal of PECO to cooperate with the court through a motion for inhibition of Judge Contreras defies logic, since it has already lost all requisites needed to go back to business, namely the legislative franchise, the certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the business permit from Iloilo City Hall.

“It hurts to say goodbye,” so an old song laments. But PECO should be sport enough to bow out as the sole electricity distributor in Iloilo City in almost a century. After all, very few other business ventures reach 96 years old.

Don’t you agree, Louie Buenaflor?