SEVEN months and 10 days have passed since Feb. 14, 2019 when President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act (RA) 11212 “granting MORE Electric and Power Corp. [MORE Power] a franchise to establish, operate, and maintain, for commercial purposes and in the public interest, a distribution system for the conveyance of electric power to the end users in the city of Iloilo.”
But why has MORE Power not yet replaced Panay Electric Co. (PECO) whose franchise expired midnight of Jan. 18 but continues to operate on temporary certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)?
It does not serve public interest that the law’s implementation has snagged due to a “delaying” complaint questioning the constitutionality of RA 11212 filed by PECO at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Mandaluyong City
It was more than one month ago (Aug. 14) when Judge Yvette Go of RTC-Iloilo (Branch 37) granted MORE Power’s application for the issuance of writ of possession on the distribution assets PECO.
However, it’s another judge – Judge Daniel Antonio Amular of Branch 35 – who is tasked to issue that writ.
If we heard it right, the judge is holding that move because he would like to determine first what assets of PECO could be covered by the expropriation proceedings; and to call both PECO and MORE Power representatives, together with technical experts from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in a hearing scheduled tomorrow, Sept. 25.
Incidentally, legal luminaries we have talked to could not understand why a third judge in far-away Mandaluyong City – Judge Monique Quisumbing Ignacio of the RTC-Branch 209 – granted the petition of PECO to declare RA 11212 “unconstitutional” for authorizing MORE Power to exercise the power of eminent domain – the power of local, state or federal government agencies to take private property for “public use”.
PECO’s filing of that case in Mandaluyong, on the pretext that its office is located thereat when it’s in fact in Iloilo City, raises eyebrows.
The law allows the grantee to seize PECO’s “poles, wires, cables, transformers, switching equipment and stations, buildings, infrastructure, machineries and equipment” in exchange for “just compensation”.
The legal minds could not fathom why a law could not be implemented just because a lower court had pronounced it “unconstitutional,” since only the Supreme Court possesses the constitutional authority to declare with finality that verdict. Hence, RA 11212 remains “the law” until nullified by the Supreme Court.
The attempt of PECO to regain its franchise despite RA 11212 played out in the present 18th Congress when its application was unanimously rejected by the House of Representatives’ committee on legislative franchises; there could be no two franchises in one territory.
Strangely, the author of the bill endorsing PECO’s application, Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, was not even around to defend it.
Iloilo City’s Rep. Julienne “Jam-jam” Baronda, in explaining her “no” vote, stressed that the House and Senate “have already spoken” in the 17th Congress when it passed RA 11212 granting MORE Power the distribution franchise.
As articulated by committee chair Rep. Johnny Pimentel, “If we grant another franchise to operate in Iloilo, that is not a solution but it will create more problems.”
It was not for nothing that the 17th Congress on Dec. 11, 2018 passed the bill that would eventually be numbered RA 11212. It was in response to thousands of power consumers who had been suffering from inefficient service, overcharging, wrong meter readings and power pilferages chargeable to paying subscribers. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
