THE basic reason why residents of Iloilo City want Panay Electric Company (PECO) out of their lives is because of the arrogance of its officials who give no damn about putting them in bad light – literally and figuratively.
Have they not heard in “Spider-Man” that “with great power comes great responsibility”?
Ninety-five years in the monopolistic power business must have inured them to insensitivity to complaints of disgruntled customers who have no one else to turn to.
The Cacho family that runs PECO must have forgotten that its franchise is not “forever”; that its renewal or nonrenewal by Congress could be influenced by a worthier competitor.
The application for franchise of that competitor, MORE Electric and Power Corporation, has won the approval of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and is therefore a signature (the President’s) away from being declared the new 25-year power franchisee in Iloilo City.
As with any newcomer in the power business, MORE Power has yet to win the confidence of the population it seeks to serve. We in the media are as interested, since there could be no radio, TV or newspaper without electricity.
To appease us, MORE Power’s President Roel Z. Castro, recently hosted a press conference, where he reiterated his company’s preparedness to assume responsibility upon expiration of PECO’s franchise on Jan. 19, 2019.
He asked us not to worry about how the company could afford to kick-start its operation because it had already stashed away a capital expenditure of P700 million for acquisition of fixed assets, such as land, buildings and equipment.
“How,” one of us asked, “when you don’t have the facilities and the technical people yet to take over in case PECO refuses to sell out?”
“There is a provision on eminent domain in the franchise mandating us to take over and absorb PECO employees within the transition period,” Castro assured us, adding that MORE Power is ready to roll out new infrastructure and negotiate with PECO for “just compensation of assets.”
He said most of Iloilo-based generators – such as Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC), Panay Power Corp. (PPC) and Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC), among others – had offered to supply power that is more than sufficient to energize Iloilo City.
He would rather not discount the possibility, however, of the other side exhausting ways and means to prevent MORE’s “takeover” even until after the President would have affixed his signature.
This writer personally thinks there must be an “influential” reason why PECO hired Manases Carpio – son-in-law of President Rodrigo Duterte – as one of its lawyers.
Castro shrugged off as “fake news” the press releases purporting to portray the bankruptcy of Pampanga Electric Cooperative (PELCO) during the incumbency of Amador Guevarra as its general manager. That brief “correction” is important to Ilonggos, since Guevarra had already been hired as general manager of MORE Power.
Throughout his luncheon meeting with us, Castro refrained from talking about himself; not even why Don Enrique Razon had chosen him president of MORE Power.
But we know for a fact that he is no stranger to the energy industry. Until his transfer to MORE Power, he had been president of the PCPC, the five-year-old, 135-megawatt coal-fired power plant built at a cost of P12.5 billion in Concepcion, Iloilo.
Castro had also worked for Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp., Peakpower Energy, Inc., Hydro Link Power Corp., and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
He finished his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños and his master’s degree at the Asian Institute of Management. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
Herbert: this is the hocus-pocus played by these companies. At least dini sa amin the State puts a cap and everytime they raise rates it has to pass to a lithmus test why they need to raise. What the State did was to “deregulate” the power business of PECO (the Philadelphia Electric Company) and now there are some 10 electric power companies “selling” electricity to Philadelphians. The funny thing is by State mandate PECO sells electricity to them at a much lesser price than PECO sells it to their customers. Non of them have apower plant to make electricity. They then “sell” to people who “buys” their services. They make a few cents per kilowatt from what they pay PECO but then the consumption is by the billions of killowatt hours. So they still make money while PECO insists on screwing all of us. Now we have them and PECO screwing all of us. A’int that laughable?