AND THE never-ending strip tease of PECO continues. It gets more and more (pun intended) absurd.
By PECO here, we mean of course the Panay Electric Co. For almost a century PECO has forced-fed the natives of “I Am Iloilo City” with their ridiculous almost archaic brand of “lap dancing”. They already wore out their welcome, not to mention losing their franchise when it expired and was not renewed by Congress. The franchise was instead awarded to a new player, MORE Electric and Power Corp. or MORE Power.
After exchanging barbs, law suits and trash talking with MORE Power for sometime, providing light entertainment to coffee shop habituates and source of pecuniary fulfillment for some so-called media characters, the peep show “leveled up” into another form with different “dance partners”.
First, PECO got the ire of “I Am Iloilo City” mayor Geronimo, and as if on cue with uncanny timing this happened (excerpts from the Nov. 22, 2019 issue of Panay News):
House to probe Iloilo pole fires
The House of Representatives will conduct an investigation on the series of pole fires in this city. These fires are endangering the lives of city residents, according to Cong. Julienne Baronda, and the Department of Energy (DOE) and Panay Electric Co. (PECO) have a lot of explaining to do.
Between Oct. 19 to 21 alone, according to Baronda, nine pole fires were reported.
But pole fire data that the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) recently submitted to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) was more damning, she said.
From January 2014 to October 29, 2019, BFP recorded a total of 2,887 fire incidents in Iloilo City and of these, 1,464 were pole fires.
The House Committee on Energy will spearhead the congressional inquiry; the date is yet to be set though.
“DOE and PECO owe the public an explanation,” said the neophyte congresswoman. “If their explanations are wanting, we will exercise the congressional oversight power of the House Committee on Energy.”
Baronda revealed she had actually written DOE seeking an explanation for the pole fires. She wanted to be clarified how safe the electricity posts in the city were.
The congresswoman also urged ERC chief Agnes Devanadera to support the House probe.
How PECO managed to acquire the ire of the” lovely and sweet “lady representative of “I Am Iloilo City” just shows you the kind of service or lack of it they have been providing the natives.
Of course, it is already public knowledge that PECO’s silly attempt at namedropping has also acquire the wrath of Devanadera to the point that she slammed them. As of press time PECO remains silent on this issue. Is it a tacit admission of their “presscon” faux pas?
The flavor of the week so far is the exchange of fire (pun intended) between PECO and PLDT or the Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Co.
The “exchange of fires” with PECO and PLDT started with this (excerpts from the Nov. 19, 2019 issue of Panay News):
PLDT: ‘It’s a lie!’
Aside from courting the ire of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Panay Electric Co. (PECO) has also angered telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) for attributing incidents of pole fires in this city to telephone companies.
PLDT vice president for Visayas Rene Lescano clarified they only have 2,000 poles in Iloilo City and of these, only 800 are wooden compared to PECO’s 30,000 poles.
As defense to the complaint of Mayor Jerry Treñas to the ERC about the pole fires, PECO claimed that between 2017 to 2019 the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) recorded 709 post fires and that only 138 of these involved its own poles while 571 involved those of telcos.
“It’s a lie. It is not correct to say that the more than 500 posts are ours. We have very few wooden poles compared to theirs,” said Lescano who previously served as PLDT Iloilo manager.
He also insisted that it was not the poles that started the fires but the electrical wires of PECO.
And not taking this “fire” from PLDT lying down PECO replied with this (excerpts from the Nov. 21, 2019 issue of Panay News):
PECO turns table on PLDT, lists telco’s shortcomings
Panay Electric Co. (PECO) denied specifically attributing pole fires here to the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).
“We merely stated that of the reported 709 pole fires from 2017 to 2019, only 138 were PECO-related. With that logic in mind, the remainder of the pole fires must related to telcos,” PECO stated in a letter to PLDT Panay Customer Service Zone senior manager Rene Lescano.
According to PECO, never in their statements in the media nor in their report to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) did they state that the 571 pole fires in this city were attributable to PLDT.
And this ridiculous peep show between PLDT and PECO continues. Meanwhile the natives of “I Am Iloilo City” are left with no choice but to watch in the sidelines with matching brownouts or worse, blackouts. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
