YES, THE 220 volts running down Panay Electric Co.’s (PECO) electrical cable can be quite hot when exposed and when you touch an open live electric cable by accident or otherwise you get burned literally.
It’s so hot that those PECO electrical cables have been the cause of numerous electric pole fires that pissed off “I Am Iloilo City” mayor Geronimo.
Some say if you’re electrocuted it’s like being hit by a bolt of lightning and one get can get seriously injured or even die from it. A very painful and messy way to die and that is why most people in their right minds, including judges, stay away as far as possible from anything even remotely associated with electricity.
And that seems to be the case with the ongoing expropriation case filed by MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) against PECO.
Excerpts from the Feb. 13, 2020 issue of Panay News:
4th judge backs out of MORE Power-PECO expro case
MORE Electric and Power Corp.’s (MORE Power) expropriation case against Panay Electric Co. (PECO) was re-raffled again.
Set for retirement, Judge Gloria Madero of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 29 who was supposed to handle the case – the fourth judge, in fact – deemed it proper to let another RTC branch tackle the case, a source told Panay News.
She already started processing her retirement papers, the source added.
The re-raffle was held on Monday. The case landed on RTC Branch 23 of Judge Emerald Kuizon Requina-Contreras.
It was on Jan. 27 when the case was re-raffled to RTC Branch 29 of Madero after Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar of RTC Branch 33 decided to inhibit citing her close ties to PECO owners.
It was on Jan. 2 when the case was re-raffled to Gaspar’s sala after RTC Branch 35’s Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular inhibited, too.
The other judge who previously heard the case Judge Yvette Go of RTC Branch 37.
MORE Power filed the expropriation case against PECO in March 2019 a month after President Rodrigo Duterte signed its franchise law (Republic Act 11212) as new power distributor in Iloilo City.
PECO’s power distribution franchise expired on Jan. 19, 2019.
MORE Power asked RTC Branch 37 to issue a writ of possession authorizing it to take immediate control, operation, use, and disposition of PECO’s power distribution system assets.
So we’re now down to our fifth judge and hopefully not counting; this time it’s Judge Emerald Kuizon Requina-Contreras of RTC Branch 23.
Is she going to be man or woman enough to do her job? Or just like the other “fence sitters”, I mean judges, play safe by concocting all sorts of excuses to stay away from this supposedly routine enforcement of the law that was inadvertently turned controversial by the judges themselves inflicted with “PECO paranoia”?
What we have seems to be a game of “musical chairs”. I wonder how many judges do we have at the Hall of Justice because from the look of things, this game of “judicial musical chairs” will just go on till we run out of judges.
And if that happens we all fall nicely into the game plan of PECO which is to wait this out. You see, after two years and MORE Power has still not assumed its rightful and legal role as the sole power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” by way of the franchise granted by Congress, then that franchise is null and void and open again for applicants.
PECO is hoping that by then there will be a more (pun intended) friendlier set of congressmen/women who might be swayed to grant them the franchise again as sole power provider of “I Am Iloilo City”.
As it is, PECO has nothing to lose and everything to gain; they are still operating as the power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” courtesy of a temporary permit granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC.
If the court which has the responsibility to handle the expropriation case will continue with this indecisiveness, then whether willingly or unwittingly it becomes a pawn to the game plan of PECO.
It, too, is making a mockery of “I Am Iloilo City” mayor Geronimo’s level up programs for the city. For how can you level up when the most basic utility for any community or city i.e. power is literally unstable, handled by a provider with no franchise operating on a temporary basis? (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
