ILOILO City – Contrary to what had been announced these past few days, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) owned by ports magnate Enrique Razon still does not have a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN).
This came to light during a hearing at the ERC office on March 11 attended by representatives of MORE Power and Panay Electric Co. (PECO), long-time power distributor in Iloilo City.
ERC hearing officer Atty. Ma. Corazon Gines confirmed that MORE Power has no CPCN yet and that no official order has been signed to grant one at the moment.
A CPCN is needed before a power utility can start power distribution services in an area.
On March 6, MORE legal counsel Atty. Carlo Verzo brandished a letter dated March 5 which stated ERC’s decision to revoke PECO’s CPCN and grant one to MORE Power.
It was confirmed during the hearing that his copy was not officially received.
However, he refused to disclose how and from whom he got it, invoking “lawyer-client privilege.”
Atty. Gines also acknowledged that MORE Power had not furnished the Commission with a copy of the Addendum to the Writ of Possession issued by Iloilo Regional Trial Court, Branch 23’s Judge Emerald Contreras which clearly stated PECO would still operate the currently contested power distribution facilities.
Following MORE Power’s takeover of five PECO substations on Feb. 28, Judge Contreras issued a March 6 order directing the former to return to PECO the control of the substations.
Both the Addendum and the March 6 order of strict adherence to the addendum were only presented to ERC on the hearing day, March 11.
“This just proves what we’ve been saying for weeks. That this is an illegal corporate takeover,” said Atty. Estrella Elamparo, PECO legal counsel. “They blatantly lied to the ERC and took advantage of the confusion.”
Also, it turned out that the inspection team sent by ERC to draft a report for the Commission’s March 2 hearing only met with MORE Power people, who in turn informed the inspectors that MORE Power was in complete control of the distribution facilities despite Judge Contreras’s order to return the control with PECO.
This ocular inspection was the basis for ERC’s March 5 letter but was curiously not in the records of this ERC case, said Elamparo.
MORE Power failed, too, to inform the ERC that it had sent letters to PECO’s existing subscribers informing them that all payments for next month’s cycle should be paid to MORE Power despite the fact that it lacks a CPCN that would allow it to do so, added Elamparno.
PECO continues to nominate power for the city of Iloilo until now and submitted to the ERC Wholesale Electric Spot Market (WESM) bills and Day-Ahead Nominations of power as proof of its contention that MORE Power was attempting to charge consumers for electricity that PECO had purchased.
“They tried to forcibly take over our facilities, then they tried to deceive consumers that they were the ones supplying power,” said PECO head of Public Engagement and Government Relations Marcelo Cacho.
“Now it’s been officially confirmed that they never had the right. Now they’ve been exposed,” said Cacho./PN
