IT WAS A sprightly Julienne “Jam-jam” Baronda, the first congresswoman of Iloilo City, who told us the good news that Don Enrique K. Razon Jr., the third richest man in the country, would navigate the “ship” Iloilo City “full-speed” ahead to its ultimate destiny as business and tourism hub of Visayas.
Razon took time out from his hectic schedule on June 28, 2019 when he flew to Iloilo City on his private jet to see Rep. Baronda and Mayor Jerry P. Treñas take their oath of office at the Iloilo Convention Center. He just sat quietly with the rest of the audience, intently listening to the two speak on “levelling” up the city.
The rest of the day he motored around the city, awed by the mushrooming malls, hotels, condominiums, subdivisions and commercial centers. He realized that due to population and vehicular congestion in Metro Manila, our city has become a relocation site, a venue for conventions and a tourist destination.
We asked the congresswoman to brief us on what Razon had discussed with her and the mayor.
“Not much,” she said, “because the occasion did not call for that. He only assured us of his eagerness to be an instrument of Iloilo’s further boom. He had long ago expressed his intention to invest in the expansion of the Iloilo International Port and Dumangas Port to accommodate overseas vessels.”
Why would he do that?
His company is in the business of cargo handling using automated harbor equipment to facilitate automated loading and unloading of incoming and outgoing cargoes at cheaper cost, since the importers and exporters would no longer have to transship at the ports of either Cebu or Manila.
Razon is no tyro in port services. He owns the International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), which is not “international” for nothing. Aside from nine ports in the Philippines (Manila, Subic, Batangas and General Santos City, among others), ICTSI also operates in Indonesia, Pakistan, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Honduras, Poland, Georgia, Croatia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Congo, and Iraq.
Every Ilonggo must have also heard of Razon and his role as chairman of the board of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), which is taking over Panay Electric Co. (PECO) as the new 25-year franchisee to distribute electricity in the city as embodied in Republic Act 11212 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on February 14, 2019.
As of today, however, that takeover has hit a snag because of a court case questioning the constitutionality of the law granting the new franchisee the power to expropriate the power-distribution facilities of PECO.
Section 10 of the law granting the new 25-year franchise to MORE Power provides that “the grantee is authorized to exercise the power of eminent domain [expropriation] in so far as it may be reasonably necessary for the efficient establishment, improvement, upgrading, rehabilitation, maintenance and operation of its services.”
We asked Baronda which side she was on: PECO, or MORE Power?
“Let the court decide,” she quipped.
The ball is now in the hands of Judge Yvette Go of the Regional Trial Court (Branch 37, Iloilo City), who has already finished hearing MORE Power’s petition for a writ of possession. Once granted, the latter would be in position to take over PECO’s power-distribution upon payment of “just compensation” to be determined by the judge.
Going back to Enrique Razon Jr., based on available information naming him as third richest Filipino worth US$4.9 billion, there is no doubt his entry in Iloilo’s economic landscape would boost industrialization. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
