What more does PECO want?

LET us momentarily take the side of Panay Electric Co. (PECO) crying “foul” over the impending implementation of the law (Republic Act 11212) granting a 25-year franchise to MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), enjoining it to convey electricity all over Iloilo City. If I were a stock holder of PECO, I would naturally mourn the unfolding loss of millions of pesos worth of facilities.

Would I then go to court to question the legality of the expropriation clause in the law which would allow MORE Power to take over the former’s essential equipment and power lines?

I would not.  Why should I when the odds are stacked against me? Even cautious gamblers know when it’s time to quit and wait for better luck next time.

But to go back to reality, charges and countercharges have marred an otherwise smooth transition of power franchise tom PECO to MORE Power. The last news we heard was of the Court of Appeals issuing a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against a Regional Trial Court’s 20-day TRO that has the effect of suspending the implementation of RA 11212.

Setting aside legal gobbledygook, what does PECO really want?  If it wants to regain its franchise that expired on January 19 this year, that’s already a no-no with the entry of a new franchisee approved by law. Moreover, with its certificate of public conveyance and necessity (CPCN) expiring on May 25, 2019, henceforth it would make no more profitable use for its power lines, substations, poles, feeders, transformers and other facilities. These things would rot and gather rust in time.

If MORE Power as the succeeding franchisee does not buy them, the Cacho family and other PECO incorporators would gain not a single centavo.  But they stand to amass much money by selling them to MORE Power, which is indeed interested in buying them through expropriation. In other words, the two companies would mutually benefit from the deal. In fact, MORE Power has painstakingly assessed the monetary value of the viable properties, for which it is ready to pay.

If PECO’s incorporators want higher valuation, why would they not talk with their counterparts over the table? There could be a win-win solution to what could not even be classified as an impasse.

If PECO cares for its employees and the Ilonggo power users in mind,  then it has more compelling reasons to discuss these concerns with MORE Power over the table. There’s nothing to lose but everything to gain.

Otherwise, it would be presumptuous for PECO to wail against “unwarranted attempt of MORE Power to confiscate and take over our assets without due process.”

On the contrary, there is due process in Section 10 of RA 11212 authorizing the new franchisee to exercise the “power of eminent domain,” which is defined as “the power of government [not of MORE Power] to take, or to authorize the taking of, private property for public use without the owner’s consent, conditioned upon payment of just compensation.”

What could be worth much more than “just compensation” to cap PECO’s 95 years of continuously conveying electricity to the city?  It has had that rare opportunity to prove its worth.

Ironically, complacency and seeming indispensability must have rendered its management insensitive to clients complaining of power outages, hazardous “spaghetti wirings”, outrageous power rates, wrong meter readings, power pilferage, overbillings, poor response to complaints and outsourcing of services – namely line maintenance, meter reading and bill delivery – that used to be handled by its employees.

Meanwhile, only the lawyers stand to gain from the legal battle. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)

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