Game over finally…

FROM the look of things and what actually happened Friday last week and is still happening as of press time, it does indeed seem game over for Panay Electric Co. or PECO save for the usual face-saving moves dismissed by most as just exercises in futility.

The antics and tantrums of PECO’s public affairs and government engagement head failed to impress and stop the court sheriffs from implementing the law. The court sheriffs came literally armed to the teeth with a Writ of Possession from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 and supported by a battalion of riot policemen complete with riot shields and truncheons to diffuse resistance.

PECO’s Marcelo Ugarte Cacho should accept the fact that their family business does not have a legal leg to stand on. The franchise of PECO already expired last Jan. 19, 2019 and was not renewed by Congress. Legislators opted instead to grant the franchise as sole power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” to MORE Electric and Power Corp. or MORE Power.

What PECO is up against is the law, specifically Republic Act (RA) 11212 duly signed and approved by President Rodrigo Duterte. This specific law grants the franchise to MORE Power.

So what happened on Friday and is still happening is just the implementation of RA 11212, much delayed I might say, as the delaying tactics and tantrums of PECO went full swing to derail the law’s implementation.

Excerpts from the Feb. 29, 2020 issue of Panay News:

BATTLE FOR POWER

MORE Power takes control of PECO substations, assets

MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has started the process of taking over the power distribution facilities of Panay Electric Co. (PECO) as new power distributor here.

Armed with a Writ of Possession from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 and supported by court sheriffs and a battalion of policemen to diffuse resistance, it was able to enter the following PECO power substations yesterday beginning at 10 a.m.:

* Baldoza-La Paz substation (land including all machineries and improvements, buildings)

* General Luna substation (Meter Lab, Power Plant Building and Switchboard House)

 Tabuc Suba, Jaro substation (land, machinery)

* Bolilao, Mandurriao substation (land, buildings, and machinery)

As this was being written last night, MORE Power was set to also enter the Molo substation (land, and buildings, machinery) on Avanceña Street.

Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras of RTC, Branch 23, in a ruling dated Feb. 20, 2020, ordered the court sheriff “to place MORE Power in possession” of PECO’s identified power distribution properties for expropriation.

The Writ of Possession was served but not without some tension at PECO’s power substation on General Luna Street where it main building is also located.

PECO administrative manager Marcelo Cacho refused to receive the writ. Court sheriffs thus just posted it on the building then declared that it was good as served.

And as of this writing, the latest of the ongoing implementation of the Writ of Possession is that MORE Power has taken control and possession of all five PECO substations including all electric meters, power lines, poles, transformers, installations and distribution equipment throughout “I Am Iloilo City”.

It would be safe to assume that MORE Power is now in control of power distribution despite the desperate and somehow childish attempt of PECO to disrupt the implementation of the law when last Friday, without any regard of how it may adversely affect the natives of “I Am Iloilo City”, it disconnected the internet connection of its switchboard and announced to the public that it was MORE Power’s doing. In fact, such disconnection could only be done inside the PECO main building on General Luna Street which remained under the control of PECO.

Should we be surprised at that crude childish antic, not really bearing in mind that the series of electrical pole fires that has plagued “I Am Iloilo City” and has infuriated Mayor Geronimo was caused by poorly maintained electrical cable according to the Bureau of Fire Protection or BFP and the Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC? Yet PECO has the temerity to blame it on the cables of the telcos.

Oh well, PECO should just swallow its pride and accept the inevitable already happening. One hundred years is long enough and it’s not that there is no compensation for all the assets and properties included in the Writ of Possession. PECO stands to be P481,842,450 richer. This estimated value has already been deposited in Landbank.

Just take the money even with your tail tucked between your legs, it is pure profit. After all, the so-called assets and properties have already been paid for by the natives of “I Am Iloilo City”.

At the end of the day, why not open a restaurant in the Cayman Islands? I heard it’s lovely there this time of the year./PN

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here