‘MORE LYING’

ILOILO City – Panay Electric Company (PECO) has accused rival MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) of resorting to a vilification campaign and feeding the public with wrong information about the sole power distributor in this city for over nine decades.

“We are wondering where he got his facts and figures. If you are truly knowledgeable about the power industry and have done proper research, you will know that those statements were false,” according to PECO in a statement released in reaction to the recent remarks of the major stockholder of MORE Power, billionaire businessman Enrique Razon Jr.

According to Razon, 1,800 complaints were raised against PECO.

PECO, however, said there were only 194 registered complaints and of these, only 25 remain pending with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) since some involved power pilferage.

“We have 64,000 customers in Iloilo City and as Mr. Rany Ocampo (president of the organization of private electric distribution utilities) stated after seeing ERC records, the complaints against PECO weren’t even .01 percent of our total customer base,” according to PECO.

MORE Power’s Razon also criticized PECO’s power rates as being expensive but ironically stated that the latter’s distribution charge was too low.

According to PECO, its average residential rate – excluding lifeline subsidies – for the past nine months was P11.64/kwh.

Based on the bills gathered from other electric distribution utilities – also excluding life line subsidies – over the past nine months it can be seen that PECO was quite competitive, it stressed.

MERALCO’s rate is P11.61/kwh; VECO is P11.78/kwh; and even neighboring ILECO 1 is P11.98/kwh, according to PECO.

“We know we have competitive rates since we monitor the rates of other electric utilities through the actual bills they send out,” it stated.

This appeared to be the first time a power utility is being criticized for having low distribution charges, according to PECO.

“You mean MORE Power intends to jack up the distribution charges in Iloilo City? Perhaps Mr. Razon should just stick to mining, gambling and port operations rather than dwell in an industry he has no track record ,” stressed PECO.

According to PECO, it was able to support “the incredible growth of Iloilo City while maintaining its low distribution charges.”

“This is an accomplishment. This growth provides thousands of jobs to our kasimanwas while keeping the rates low,” it said.

In his statement last week, Razon also claimed that PECO’s reliability ranking (20 out of 140 plus electric distribution utilities) was poor since it was far from the “country average” SAIDI (System Average Interruption Index) of 54 minutes and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) of 2.18 incidents.

“The actual ERC figures show that the country average SAIDI is 5,135 minutes and SAIFI is 40.31 incidents. PECO has a SAIDI of 1,552 minutes and SAIFI of 31 – way below the country average. Our reliability ranking is better than cities with sizes and economic returns similar to Iloilo such as Cagayan de Oro, Mactan, San Fernando, and Tarlac which have higher outage minutes compared to Iloilo City,” according to PECO.

“We really don’t know where he is getting his figures. In fact, there is no electric distribution utility in the Philippines with only 54 minutes of outages in a year,” it added.

Razon chided PECO, too, for facilities that he claimed were 95 years old. But PECO said it had in fact commissioned multiple substations, transformers, poles, and wires in the last 25 years.

Since its last franchise renewal in 1994, PECO said it invested in four substations, fitted out 450 kilometers of electrical lines, 1,300 distribution transformers, thousands of poles and is now serving 64,000 customers.

“The load of Iloilo City was only 35.7 megawatts back in 1994. Now it has a peak load 116 megawatts. The economic growth rate of Iloilo City, currently at 12 percent, would not have happened if we did not invest heavily in our facilities,” stressed PECO.

Thus there was factual basis why PECO was commended by the Department of Energy in 2015 for successfully supporting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Iloilo City, according to PECO.

“There was basis, too, why the ERC cited PECO for 100 percent compliance last 2016. Only four electric distribution utilities (PECO, Davao Light, VECO and the Subic Enerzone) out of over 140 electric utilities in the country were given that merit,” it added.

“Thousands of our fellow kasimanwas have job opportunities because of this. Again, it is simply not right and misleading to blurt out anything without studying the matter,” stressed PECO.

‘GLARING CONCERN’

Turning the tables on MORE Power, PECO said its rival has actually not presented any plan for Iloilo City.

“During a meeting of the technical working group that the Senate’s Committee on Public Services formed two weeks ago, MORE Power was asked about its plan for Iloilo City but its president Roel Castro simply replied, ‘We are working on it.’”

Today, Nov. 26, MORE Power will be presenting its plan to the City Council of Iloilo.

“That means their plan was only done in around two weeks? Their President even stated in their Senate hearing before the TWG that they have a P700-million plan for Iloilo City in the next five years, yet a week after, during the TWG meeting, they didn’t have a plan in place. So where did that P700-million figure come from?” asked PECO.

To simply be planning things on the top of their heads would be quite disastrous for Iloilo City, said PECO.

“PECO, on the other hand, has a 10-year P2-billion plan in place way before it applied for its franchise since it is just a continuation of its positive works and projects for the continued progress of Iloilo City,”   the company stressed.

PECO also warned Iloilo City residents that their private properties could be legally gobbled up by MORE Power through the “eminent domain” provision in their franchise bill.

Such provision gives MORE Power the authority to expropriate private properties in the city as long as it is deemed “justifiable” for use in the operations of power distribution, according to PECO.

“Again, we reiterate the concern of not only PECO but many Ilonggos in the city. MORE Power’s franchise bill contains a highly unconstitutional provision. It can expropriate assets and properties if they can justify it in the courts. To grab whatever they want through their power and influence, this is disturbing. What we are seeing in this latest vilification campaign is that MORE Power is now resorting to feeding the public with wrong information to justify the railroading of its franchise in Congress that could lead to the illegal takeover of PECO,” it added.

Razon may have success in his casino, mining and port businesses, and may have the money and political clout, but PECO said these should not exempt him from giving concrete proof that he can be a distributor of electric power in Iloilo City.

He should not simply bank on the assets, systems, records, and employees of the current franchise holder, PECO stressed.

PECO, meanwhile, assured Iloilo City residents of its service.

“We are here to serve our fellow kasimanwas and will not abandon the city of Iloilo despite this hostile takeover attempt,” stressed PECO.

Awarding the franchise to an entity that has no track record to show in the power distribution industry would put in peril the power needs of Iloilo City, according to PECO./PN