WE are sorry for Panay Electric Company (PECO), but it has lost its moral ascendancy for a long, long time. If everybody is excited nowadays, it’s because of the impending entry of a new power player to take its place.
Why should its incorporators and well-paid managers complain? They have not proven themselves worthy of seeking renewal of the company’s 25-year franchise that will expire on Jan. 19, 2019. There is no indication whatsoever that, given another 25 years, PECO would regain the trust and confidence of the Ilonggos who have “survived” 95 years of inefficient power distribution service.
Unless Councilor Joshua Alim was joking, his office is in possession of letter-complaints from thousands of electricity users suffering from erroneous billing, overbilling, wrong meter reading, and negligence.
We know neighbors who were billed 10 times their usual monthly payment; who complained, only to be asked to pay the wrong bill by “installment,” lest they be disconnected.
The cocky PECO management must have imbibed the mistaken notion that no corporation would be interested in edging them out – not until the House of Representatives voted on third and final reading on a bill granting the franchise to MORE Electric and Power Corporation.
The Senate committee on public services on Oct. 22, 2018 “approved in principle” the franchise application of MORE. Last Thursday (Nov. 8), the committee called for a meeting of its technical working group (TWG) that would pave the way for a smooth transition of franchise from PECO to MORE. Unfortunately, nobody from PECO came to the meeting.
During that meeting, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) proposed a two-year transition period from PECO to MORE Power. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, a member of the Senate’s committee on power services, disagreed and suggested that the transitory period be limited to one year only.
Asked for a reaction, PECO lawyer Inocencio Ferrer warned over the radio that if MORE gets the new franchise, PECO would have legal ground to stop operating upon expiration of its own franchise. Blackout! If that was no blackmail threat, I don’t know what is.
Let us remember that a second lawyer, President Duterte’s son-in-law Manases Carpio (husband of Mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City), had also been hired by PECO, probably for “connection” purposes. But that did not prevent Rep. Franz Josef Alvarez, chair of the House committee on legislative franchises, from pushing through with his House Bill 8132 rewarding the next 25-year power franchise to MORE.
That’s music to our ears. The entry of a new player is actually long overdue. It was way back in the 1980s yet when the late city councilor German Gonzales called for a change in power distributor. He even gained the support of PECO’s labor union. Incidentally, those labor leaders have retired but are now among the present-day lobbyists behind the “No to PECO Franchise Renewal” outcry. One of them, Jose Allen Aquino, is running for councilor with a promise to be the power consumers’ “watchdog” at the Sangguniang Panglunsod. In fact, he and Councilor Alim had been trying to form a cooperative to replace PECO.
What’s shaping up, however, is not a cooperative but a corporation that Alim is now inclined to support. Should PECO resist a proposed smooth transition period aimed at keeping Iloilo City energized, he said on the air yesterday, “Expropriation by the government is allowed by the Constitution.”
But why let it hit that point? Why not a “win-win” solution? As reported, MORE president and chief executive officer Roel Z. Castro is willing to work out a mutually beneficial paradigm shift with PECO execs. So, go, go, go. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
