ILOILO City – MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) is set to take over the power distribution assets of Panay Electric Co. (PECO) more than a year after securing a franchise from the government to be this city’s power distributor.
In a ruling dated Feb. 20, 2020 Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 ordered the court sheriff “to place MORE Power in possession” of PECO’s identified power distribution properties for expropriation and “submit a report thereof to the court, with service of copies to the parties pursuant to Section 2 of Rule 67 of the Rules of Court.”
The PECO power distribution assets that the court identified for MORE Power’s takeover were the following:
* Baldoza-La Paz substation (land including all machineries and improvements, buildings)
* General Luna substation (machinery)
* Tabuc Suba, Jaro substation (land, machinery)
* Bolilao, Mandurriao substation (land, buildings, and machinery)
* Avanceña Street, Molo substation (land, and buildings, machinery)
All of these have a total assessed value of P217,940, 870.
Also to be taken over by MORE Power are personal properties directly used in the electric distribution services in Iloilo City such as consumers’ electric meters, poles, transformers, transmission and distribution equipment composed of primary and secondary lines on the streets of Iloilo City, and service vehicles and equipment used directly in the distribution, maintenance and trouble-shooting activities.
“The primary goal of the court is a smooth and peaceful transition of operation, to protect the public interest of the people of Iloilo City and its businesses, and to ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity,” stressed the court.
Also to be taken over by MORE Power are PECO assets listed under the distribution plant in the Energy Regulation Commission record. These include meter lab, power plant building, switchboard house with total assessed value of P14,792, 680.
PECO’s franchise expired on Jan. 19, 2019. It failed to secure an extension or a new one from Congress which cited the many complaints from consumers over, among others, erroneous billing, poor customer service and high rates.
On Feb. 14, 2019 President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law MORE Power’s franchise, Republic Act (RA) 11212.
In March 2019 MORE Power asked RTC Iloilo City 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.
In seeking the expropriation of PECO’s assets, MORE Power cited Section 10 of RA 11212 and Rule 67 Section 2 of the Revised Rules of Court authorizing it to take possession of, exercise control over, and manage and operate all of the power distribution assets in Iloilo City.
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.”
MORE Power also petitioned the court to determine the reasonable value of PECO’s power distribution system assets for just compensation, then order the transfer of the ownership of these upon payment of a just compensation.
By MORE Power’s own estimate, PECO’s power distribution system is valued at P481,842,450.
PECO had been Iloilo City’s monopoly power distributor for over 95 years.
The expropriation case dragged due to PECO’s legal challenge and hopped from one court to another. Requina-Contreras was the fifth judge to handle it. It was re-raffled to her court after retiring Judge Gloria Madero of 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.
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./PN
