Power saboteurs face arrest

By Herbert Vego

 

LAWYER Romel Duron, the chair of the committee on public utilities at the Sangguniang Panglunsod (SP) of Iloilo, firmly believes that one or more persons could have intentionally short-circuited the power lines of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) on June 20, resulting in overnight power outages in Mandurriao district.

All the other SP members think so, knowing that the wired stones thrown over the power lines could not have found their mark without human intervention.

They are also aware that the “scheduled brownouts” – as explained by MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro — are necessary to upgrade the dilapidated distribution system “inherited” from the former franchisee, Panay Electric Co. (PECO), through expropriation.

Two new substations would have to be constructed, in addition to the existing five, to keep the system running smoothly on a budget of P1.8 billion within the next three years.

The most logical explanation is that somebody must have paid the perpetrators to foment public disgust and anger against the distribution utility.

During an appearance on the radio program Tribuna sang Banwa at Aksyon Radyo last Sunday, Duron told hosts Neri Camiña and this writer that he would file an ordinance penalizing persons caught disrupting the flow of electricity anywhere in the 180 barangays of Iloilo City. With no caught suspects, he could not name their bosses.

The proposed ordinance is aimed at exposing the “sponsors” of the sabotage who could benefit from destabilizing the new power franchisee.

They could be the same people behind the ongoing attempt of two or three party-list congressmen to initiate a House probe into the alleged “inefficiency” of MORE Power in performing its role.

The group could be the “advertiser” behind the “inefficiency” front-page stories in a local newspaper and even in Manila-based tabloids.

Why would the perpetrators destabilize the utility that has already been granted by law (RA 11212) the new 25-year power-distribution franchise? Why, when it would harm their fellow Ilonggos?

We wish we were wrong but it is public knowledge that the disenfranchised Panay Electric Co. (PECO) has consistently opposed the change despite the expiration of its own franchise on January 19, 2019, citing the possibility that the Supreme Court would eventually sustain its position on the “unconstitutionality” of the expropriation process mandated by RA 11212.

That’s easier said than done because the “Electric Power Industry Reform Act” (EPIRA), in Section 23, clearly says, “Distribution utilities may exercise the power of eminent domain [expropriation].”

The Revised Rules of Court (Rule 67, Section 2) likewise speaks of the expropriating entity as having “the right to take or enter upon the possession of the real property involved if he deposits with the authorized government depositary an amount equivalent to the assessed value of the property for purposes of taxation to be held by such bank subject to the orders of the court.“

MORE Power has deposited an escrow of P481,842,450 as “just compensation” at the Landbank.

The irony of it all is that while PECO banks on the slim chance of regaining its franchise via Supreme Court intervention, it also pins that chance on one of the provisions of the very franchise law  (RA 11212) it questions. That provision is Section 11 which says, “This franchise shall be deemed ipso facto revoked in the event that the grantee fails to operate continuously for two years.”

If PECO is thinking of a “naughty” way to pave “revocation,” then it has to do so within a two-year timeframe.

Simply put, if MORE Power is proven a “failure” in its first two years, then Congress could revoke its franchise and make it available to any pre-qualified franchise applicant, which could be PECO.

Therefore, as to who is praying for MORE “failure,” your guess is as good as mine.

-oOo-

This corner agrees with Mayor Jerry P. Treñas that regardless of any more COVID-19 positive cases showing on the horizon, the need to revive the economy of Iloilo City beckons.

“Whether we like it or not,” he said in a statement, “we all have to understand that this virus will stay with us for as long as there is no vaccine, and there is no medicine. Some say maybe it will stay with us up to the end of the year, or June of next year, or December of next year.”

The mayor must have realized that “leveling up” could not wait for “flattening the virus curve”; that it is possible to revive the economy without fear of dying from COVID-19.

After all, amid the pandemic panic, only one man so far has died of COVID-19 as far as Iloilo City is concerned.