Expecting more from MORE Power

IT HAS BEEN one week and one day since the January 19, 2019 expiration date of franchise of Panay Electric Company (PECO) as sole power distributor in Iloilo City. But why has it not stepped aside yet in favor of the new franchisee, MORE Electric and Power Electric Corporation?

A recent Lapsus Calami item recently published here in Panay News gave the answer: “President Du30 is now in possession of the Congress-approved Senate bill awarding the new 25-year franchise to MORE Power but has not signed it yet.  He may choose to just sit down, and it becomes a law in 30 days.”

Let’s assume the President does not sign and take it from there.  I got it from a reliable source that Malacañang Palace officially received the Senate bill shortly before January 19, with the 30th day falling on February 16, 2019.  Then it would have to wait for 15 more days from the day of publication of the law in a newspaper of general circulation.

The good reason why Iloilo City has not blacked out despite the expiration of PECO’s franchise is because of the transition period provided by law (two years or less) for orderly “change power,” for which purpose the Department of Energy (DOE) recently called for separate meetings with executives of the outgoing and incoming franchisees.

I presume that DOE officials would soon call the chief executive officers of both parties – Roel Z. Castro of MORE Power and Luis Miguel A. Cacho of PECO — to a joint meeting to convince them to agree on a mutually beneficial and viable turnover of properties and assets, such as poles, power lines, feeders, electric meters and transformers. That would include “adoption” of qualified personnel applicants from PECO.

To its credit, PECO has not heeded one of its lawyers’ threat to “shut down” on the expiration date of its franchise. Otherwise, it could have immobilized the entire city. Which consequently would lawfully give the government ample ground to immediately expropriate all of PECO in favor of MORE Power.

This corner has heard power users ventilate uneasiness over the franchise shift for different reasons. For example, a question brought to PECO’s attention was whether the company would reimburse deposits and overpayments.

Under the law being implemented by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers, bill deposits made by power consumers are refundable on certain conditions, precisely because they merely serve as security for unpaid bills.

The loss of public confidence on PECO occasionally turns up on Facebook. Members of a consumer group called “No2PECO25” recently exchanged apprehensions arising from “overbillings”. According to a former PECO employee, there had been cases of outsourced meter readers – no thanks to sky-high meters — “underreading” electricity consumption, thus resulting in “underbilling”. And when another reader comes the next time around, he reads either correctly or incorrectly “higher,” resulting in “overbilling.”

PECO does not even stand to lose from illegal connections through “jumpers” because pilfered electricity ends up as “system’s loss” chargeable and prorated to paying customers.

It is hard to believe PECO’s claim that it had served the Ilonggos well in its 95-year history. On the contrary, pictures showing unsafe “spaghetti wires”, leaning poles and similar hazardous facilities — all verifiable – prove otherwise.

Since hope springs eternal, the disgruntled power users who want to rest from stress expect the incoming franchisee to implement programs that would result in rate reduction, systems loss reduction and abolition of illegal connections.  Amen to that. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)