While the bill to renew Panay Electric Company’s (PECO) franchise for 20 years as endorsed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is still at the Lower House under deliberation, that of its rival, MORE Electric and Power Corporation, has already passed the House of Representatives and endorsed to the Senate Committee on Public Services on Oct. 22, 2018, which promptly approved the franchise “in principle.” Now it is under final hearing.
Thursday last week (Nov. 8) during a meeting of the technical working group that the committee formed for a smooth transition and in the presence of a representative of the ERC, no one PECO came to attend even if it was extended an invitation.
Considering the firm stand on the issue of PECO’s lawyer, Inocencio Ferrer, we think that the electric company is not about to give up. He emphasized that PECO will never sell its assets to MORE. We now see a brewing serious conflict between the two parties.
In case of a final showdown between the two power providers, it is sad that Iloilo City might become the casualty and disrupt business. The population will end up suffering from long brownouts and resort to kerosene or oil lamps to light their homes.
While PECO has many shortcomings in its almost 95 years of service to Iloilo, some keen observers do not totally agree with the manner it is being eased out of business by a newcomer that does not even own one electric post.
That is why we suggested in our column of Oct. 30, 2018 that PECO and MORE may just join forces in serving the power needs of Iloilo. PECO has its technical know-how and experience and MORE with adequate financial resources to expand the power service. It will be a very ideal team-up.
What will happen if Mayor Joe Espinosa III and Cong. Jerry Treñas continue with their hands-off policy on our power problem?
A show-down can happen between PECO and MORE with the former making good its threat to cut off power supply.
At the risk of being repetitive, this is a worsening situation that we wish to avoid.
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Historical Quote of the Week
“Iloilo is the first city in the country to build cluster houses.” (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
