WHY DO the people of Iloilo City fret over the endless “power struggle” between Panay Electric Co. (PECO) and MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power)?
While its franchise expired on Jan. 19 this year, PECO has legally held on because it still possesses a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN), which would expire on May 25. On the other hand, the law (RA 11212) awarding the new franchise to MORE Power – signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on Feb. 14, 2019 – should have taken effect already, pending issuance of its CPCN.
Despite the above realities, PECO has refused to turn over its facilities to MORE Power on the pretext that the latter should acquire its own power lines.
MORE Power argues that, while building up its own facilities, it is legally allowed to acquire the distribution facilities of PECO which – according to MORE Power president Roel Z. Castro – have already been paid for by the power users.
Anyway, both corporations have sought relief through the courts of law. Now pending at the Iloilo City Regional Trial Court (RTC, Branch 37) is an expropriation case against PECO praying for issuance of a writ of possession authorizing MORE Power to take immediate control, operation, use, and disposition of PECO’s power distribution system assets; and to determine the reasonable value of those assets for just compensation.
MORE Power has estimated the value of PECO’s power distribution system at P481,842,450 while PECO has upped it to P2 billion.
PECO has filed a petition for temporary restraining order (TRO) against such expropriation before another RTC at Mandaluyong City, but that 20-day TRO has also been “TRO’d” by the Court of Appeals for “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in the issuance of the TRO.” That would then give the Iloilo RTC a leeway to go on with the expropriation proceedings.
“We want to hit the ground running,” MORE Power president Roel Z. Castro briefed the media the other day, citing the preparations it had already done. It had already inked a five-megawatt contract with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Another 15-mw is due for signing with Aboitiz Power today.
“Modernization” is the game that MORE Power will play in the transition stage. Already, it has appointed department heads and skeleton personnel to monitor existing PECO power lines, electric meters and power connection. The non-functional, unsightly and outdated installations that aggravate system’s loss would be replaced.
Apparently, the Department of Energy (DOE) could not ignore the PECO/MORE stalemate. While here in Iloilo City on May 18, Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said that when all else fails, the government would have to step in.
He was obviously invoking Section 10 of RA 11212 on 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.”
In fairness to PECO, Section 17 provides for smooth transition: “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.”
Sadly, the bigwigs of the two companies have not talked yet. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
