IT SEEMS that the MORE Power and PECO peep show is getting more and more absurd, pun intended of course.
After all the twists and turns and striptease on traditional and social media it has come down to a legal battle in the courtrooms.
That would have been the perfect venue to decide who should be the sole power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” although if we look back Panay Electric Co. lost its franchise when it expired a year ago, Jan. 19, 2019 to be exact, and Congress decided not to renew it for another 25 years and awarded it instead to the new kid on the block, MORE Electric and Power Corp.
As it is, PECO is operating on a temporary permit from the Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC pending the transition from PECO to MORE Power via expropriation proceedings.
The thing is, after Judge Yvette Go of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 37 decided for the expropriation case filed by MORE Power against PECO to proceed, she decided to go on leave, which left no judge in charge to handle the expropriation proceedings and the case was raffled.
As of today, there were already three judges who were picked via raffle to handle the expropriation case yet begged off for one reason or another. The last one, a certain Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular of RTC, Branch 35, sat on the case for some time until finally also backed out, citing some lame excuse that the case was being politicized and even pushed for the case to be transferred somewhere out of “I Am Iloilo City”.
If that was not enough, here comes another twist in the ongoing MORE and PECO peep show:
Excerpts from the Jan. 28, 2020 issue of Panay News:
‘IT’S COMPLICATED’
New judge inhibits, PECO case re-raffled anew
Citing her ties both with MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) and Panay Electric Co. (PECO), Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 33 has decided to inhibit from the expropriation case of the two parties.
She was supposed to be the fourth judge to handle the expropriation complaint filed by MORE Power against PECO after RTC Branch 35’s Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular who was handling it inhibited from the case.
It was only on Monday last week, Jan. 20, when the case was re-raffled to Gaspar’s sala.
Yesterday the case was re-raffled again and this time it landed on the sala of Judge Gloria Madero of RTC, Branch 29.
At least, Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar of the Regional Trial Court or RTC Branch 33 is honest enough to cite her reasons for inhibiting herself from handling the expropriation case the soonest time than sitting on it and making some lame excuse about it being politicized.
And here are Judge Gaspar’s reasons for inhibiting herself from handling the case which seems valid enough as her relationship with the Cacho family is quite obvious:
* the chief project engineer of MORE Power was the husband of her civil cases clerk staff
* the owners of PECO (Jose Marie and Sanda Cacho) were close friends of hers; in fact they were members of “Beyond I Do” organization and regularly met at the Cacho house
* Dr. Diane Cacho (wife of Jose Marie Cacho) is her endocrinologist.
The wife of the owner of PECO is the endocrinologist of Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar; you cannot get any more intimate and personal than that, a Cacho is privy to all her innermost secrets. MORE Power does not stand a chance.
It is a good thing Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar inhibited herself as a Cacho has her by the gonads literally, which could directly influence her handling of the expropriation case.
And so the expropriation case is yet again raffled and this time it landed on the sala of Judge Gloria Madero of RTC Branch 29.
On a personal note, I know Judge Gloria Madero. We were classmates in the Liberal Arts Department of the University of San Agustin, Class of 1976. She went on to become a lawyer and a judge. She is feisty and principled, hopefully the right woman “man” enough to take on the challenge.
Meanwhile, the natives of “I Am Iloilo City” are awaiting with anticipation and hope that there will be “light at the end of the tunnel” as the expropriation of PECO’s assets in its favor, according to MORE Power, would allow it to “immediately address and correct poor services, overcharging, frequent brownouts, expensive rates, old and unsafe facilities and practices, and other service deficiencies that this city’s power users and consumers had long suffered.”
So there. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
wow, another media whore paid to talk shit. carry on!