Sabotage

Is PECO trying to rise from the dead? A confluence of recent events would seem to indicate so. Let’s take a look.

On June 20-21, the district of Mandurriao suffered a sunset-to-sunrise power interruption that nearly sent some people berserk.  This was how the city’s new power distributor MORE Power Iloilo described the incident:

“At around 09:59 pm Saturday, MORE Power received reports of a loose connection along the primary wire traversing Q. Abeto Street, Mandurriao leading to trip offs in Mandurriao Feeder 4.

“Response Teams (RTs) tried to restore power supply to the affected area but successive trip offs persisted in the same area. The RTs immediately re-investigated the affected area and found loose connections in various points of the immediate network.

“The Response Team indicated the following causes and abnormalities: 1) Detached primary line from pin insulator near J7 Plaza Hotel; 2) Overheated connector near Mango Tree Restaurant on Guzman Street; 3) Damaged suspension insulator along Oñate De Leon Street; 4) Damaged suspension insulator and primary jumper/dropping wire near McDonald’s Megaworld; 5) Damaged primary line conductor across Chicken Sari-Sari.

“Power supply was fully restored at around 08:48 am Sunday.”

Although MORE inherited a dilapidated system from the previous distributor, the loose connections cropping up in a concentrated area and nearly simultaneously are too much of a coincidence to be considered a natural occurrence. It can only be described in one word: Sabotage.

Indeed, MORE described the sordid incident as “an obvious attack against the electrical system.”

Just before this, during the first week of June, PECO filed with the Energy Regulations Commission an appeal for the reinstatement of its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) and the revocation of the CPCN given to MORE.

Grounds for the appeal? MORE’s alleged lack of technical competence to operate a power distribution system and network as the primary reason. Among other things, the appeal “cited the series of incidents of long and grueling power outages in Iloilo City since its March takeover.”

Apart from PECO’s plea with ERC, there is a congressional initiative pushed by a party-list Congressman to conduct an investigation into the operations of More Power. It’s not a coincidence that the party-list solon is raising the very same issues Peco has been espousing.

Of course, Peco denies having a hand in the alleged sabotage. We can give them the benefit of the doubt. But I dare say, sabotage is a part of its company history. And I have personal experience to back it up.

It happened sometime in the 1990s.

One early evening, a brownout occurred along Rizal Street and some sections of downtown Iloilo. We were then having a bottle of beer at the restaurant on the ground floor of Yuhum Building poring over our notes and gathering our thoughts before going up to the office to write our stories when the power outage occurred. Since we can do nothing with no power supply, we continued drinking and watched the jeepneys flash by in the dark.

After a while, a PECO vehicle stopped across the street. Some men went down the vehicle and started looking at the ground around a tall electric post. One picked up what appeared to be a six-foot-long coil of wire. A couple of the guys saw us sitting at our table and crossed the street.

“Sir,” one of them asked me, “may nakita kamo nga tawo diri kagina nga naghaboy sini?”  (Sir, did you see anybody throw this cable awhile ago?”

“May ara gid e. May nakita ko duwa ka tawo dira pero wala ko nakita nga may ginhaboy sila kay nag dulum na gulpi,” I answered. (Indeed, I saw two people there although I didn’t see them throw anything since it suddenly went dark.)

To cut the story short, here’s what happened: the six-foot coil of cable wire was used to cause a short circuit in the main power lines thus causing the substation to trip off and shut down the flow of electricity. The two men who threw the cable were disgruntled PECO employees who were terminated. It was a clear case of sabotage.  And the guys who talked to me were troubleshooters who knew what they were looking for. They were not surprised that the system was sabotaged.  For sure, sabotage was a common occurrence during those days when PECO was engaged in a battle against its employees who were forming a union to secure more tenure, better pay and benefits. Again, I should know, my late father was instrumental in the formation of that union.

Let’s move forward decades later. Talks of sabotage also cropped up late last year.  In late October, a prolonged power outage hit Western Visayas with Iloilo City being affected the longest (two days). How did Peco respond?  It blamed MORE Power of sabotage!

A look back at news reports that time will show that Peco indirectly accused MORE of sabotage.   One newspaper report quoted PECO saying:  “the two-day power outage that hit Iloilo City on October 29 and 30 (2019) was highly irregular… (it) occurred when power distributorship in Iloilo is being contested in the courts by PECO and newcomer MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MEPC).” Peco shamefully recanted when various industry officials – from the NGCP to Global Power to Palm Corp. all the way from Concepcion town, all said the outages were caused by real problems within the power grid and not by any Peco-imagined causes.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Peco is quick to claim innocence, a claim that crumbles in the light of what has happened.

The way I see it, Peco is attempting the impossible by trying to rise from the dead. Failing to do that, it is trying, at the same time, to drag down into the grave where it lies the company that took its place. I don’t see how Peco can resurrect itself, however. Its franchise has expired while a new one was granted last year to More although it could only begin to operate early this year because of the legal obstacles that Peco raised. Peco’s CPCN also expired and a new one was recently granted to by the ERC to More. Without a valid franchise, there’s simply no way Peco can be issued a CPCN. It couldn’t even operate as a legitimate business in Iloilo City after city hall recalled its business permit.