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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR
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Monday, November 13, 2017
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“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds”…
– Robert Nesta Marley aka Bob Marley
“I AM Iloilo City” is in a serious crisis right now. “Pardon my French” but I have to say this, we are all in “deep shit.” Compared to this, the “most shabu-lized” and “bedrock of illegal drugs” tags are like a small ant’s bite.
It is not the dismissal from public service for grave dishonesty of Fugitive No. 1 and Former World Mayor No. 5 Jed Mabilog. He and his wife are in “deep shit”, not “I Am Iloilo City” and its inhabitants; perhaps some of the Executive Assistants and job hires are in “deep shit.”
Since 1923 up to the present times “I Am Iloilo City” has been under the “bondage’ of Panay Electric Company or PECO and the crisis looming is that PECO wants to extend that “bondage” for 25 more years. That is unless the natives finally get their acts together and emancipate themselves from this slavery.
Before anyone gets lost in translation, from that free online encyclopedia:
Bondage – the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control; slavery or involuntary servitude; serfdom.
The fact that for almost a century – 94 years to be exact – the natives of “I Am Iloilo City” were never given a choice; they are “bound” to purchase their electricity from PECO. The working class labored everyday just to let go of their hard-earned money to pay exorbitant electric utilities bill to PECO and that is a form of involuntary servitude.
While the rest of the country has moved forward and “democratized” their electric power utilities provider into electric cooperatives, “I Am Iloilo City” remains frozen in time, chained to a monolith.
The irony of it all is that Panay Electric Company or PECO does not even generate electricity or power; it buys electricity from power producers and sells it to all their consumers in “I Am Iloilo City.”
To make a long story short, PECO is just a salesman or a middleman who buys and sells electric power for a profit. According to most consumers, PECO sells electric power at exorbitant rates which does not justify the poor service and constant brownouts.
In 1994 PECO was granted by Congress an extension years of 25 years for its franchise and it is set to expire on 2019, less than two years to go and that gave rise to a growing sentiment among the natives of “I Am Iloilo City” to change the city’s power provider.
Let’s check out the rates if indeed they are exorbitant by comparing them with electric rates of several major cities around the world.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC-Iloilo) has released a disturbing report which shows that consumers in Iloilo City located in Region VI – Western Visayas, in the Central Philippines, are charged with the most expensive electricity rates, not only in the country, but also in the whole world.
Consumers in Leyte pays P7.14/kWh, in Cebu, consumers pay P8.99/kWh while Bacolod City P6.43/kWh.
On the other hand, Davao City consumers are illed P6.87/kWh rate while in General Santos, P5.47/kWh.
In Manila, the country’s business and government center, Manila Electric Company (Meralco) charges its consumer P10/kWh.
According to FDC-Iloilo, a household consumer in Iloilo City is charged by PECO a per kilowatt-hour rate of P12.95.
Another look at the report — Iloilo City electricity rates versus other developed and progressive cities in the world – shows that Iloilo City has also the highest electricity rates.
For instance, United States only charges P3.82/kWh, United Kingdom P4.72/kWh, Russia P0.22/kWh, Japan P9.63. Surprisingly, Iloilo City under PECO has the highest at P12.95/kWh.
At last week’s session, the Iloilo City Council unanimously approved a resolution asking Congress’s Committee on Legislative Franchises to hold the hearing on PECO’s application for renewal of franchise here in “I Am Iloilo City.”
Councilor Joshua Alim, the resolution’s author, wanted the Lower House to hold the meeting in the city “for the convenience and protection of consumers’ interests.”
Earlier this year, the City Council also approved Alim’s resolution asking Congress to conduct an investigation into the complaints against PECO. i.e. “unreliable meter readings, unexplained charges, sudden rise in electric bills, and arrogant personnel.”
Of course, PECO remains unfazed with all these noise. In fact they are confident that their franchise will be renewed by Congress come 2019 when it expires.
Confident or just plain cocky to come out with a veiled threat in the face of all these, Mikel Afzelius, corporate communications officer of PECO, said in an interview; “it’s going to be a big blow to the city of Iloilo and a lot of investors will back out if the franchise of the distribution utility of the city is not renewed…That will hurt the city of Iloilo and its residents a lot, so we expect it to be renewed.”
So there you go folks. Should we allow PECO another 25 more years or not? Perhaps not. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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