DOES Panay Electric Co. (PECO) really think that by filing a petition for writ of preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order (TRO) against More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) at the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 209, it could derail the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 11212?
The said law grants to MORE Power a 25-year franchise to distribute electricity to the entire Iloilo City in lieu of PECO, whose franchise ended on Jan. 19, 2019.
Apparently unwilling to obey the new law, PECO questions sections 10 and 17 for being “unconstitutional.”
It is not for us non-lawyers, however, to comment on the admissibility of the petition in court. But call not a lawyer. It only takes common sense to realize that, should MORE Power be restrained, then even PECO would be restrained from holding over after May 25, 2019 – the date of expiration of its certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN). The only right step to keep electric power on is for PECO to gradually turn over to MORE Power the proverbial baton during a transition period.
Section 17 of RA 11212 on transition is very specific: “Panay Electric Co. (PECO) shall in the interim be authorized to operate the existing distribution system within the franchise area…until the establishment or acquisition by the grantee of its own distribution system and its complete transition towards full operations as determined by the ERC.”
How, as the new franchise grantee, shall MORE Power take over PECO during this urgent transition period when it has to build itself from scratch?
Section 10 of the law covers the “right of eminent domain” or the power of the government to expropriate a utility or to delegate that power to a private group: “The grantee may acquire such private property as is actually necessary for the realization of the purposes for which this franchise is granted, including but not limited to poles, wires, cables, transformers…Provided, that proper expropriation proceedings shall have been instituted and just compensation paid.”
It is well-settled in expropriation proceedings that whenever vendor and vendee do not agree, government may step in to rule on “fair market value,” probably through the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
There have been reports about MORE Power’s chairman Enrique Razon Jr. having offered to buy PECO for P6 billion even before its franchise expired, but this was denied by PECO administrative officer Marcelo Castro when interviewed by DyRI broadcaster Henry Lumawag, adding that the value of their company is much, much more than that.
MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Z. Castro, on the other hand, has made it known that his company is willing to buy PECO’s infrastructure and facilities that are still highly functional; and to build its own at whatever cost it would take.
PECO does not stand to lose a centavo from such an eventuality. Its obsolete pieces of equipment could be discarded, having outlived their usability and made huge amount of money for the company in 95 long years.
It’s the power consumers who feel short-changed. It’s precisely the thousands of consumer complaints over “expensive but poor services” that had convinced Congress to reject the application for renewal of PECO’s franchise. For a monopoly to have prevailed that long without satisfying them argues against its extended ascendancy.
This corner “votes” for MORE because its major owner is the 59-year-old billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., identified by Forbes magazine as the third richest Filipino tycoon with excellent track record of reinvesting profits from his other business ventures. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
