By Herbert Vego
PANAY Electric Co. (PECO) has run out of legal means to recover the power-distribution franchise that now belongs to MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) because of the action of the Supreme Court (SC) junking the former’s motion for reconsideration.
In other words, there is no more legal impediment that could stop MORE Power from exercising its franchise as sole energy distributor in Iloilo City for 25 straight years. The SC has ruled on the constitutionality of the law granting such franchise.
If I heard it right from the grapevine, even PECO lawyers are now clamoring for MORE to pay their client the “just compensation” provision of the law they used to dispute for being “unconstitutional”.
We had the opportunity to have MORE President Roel Z. Castro on our radio show “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo last Sunday.
“I don’t know about that,” Castro told program hosts Neri Camiña, Nermie Barcelona and this writer. “It’s for the Regional Trial Court [RTC] to decide on.”
The disputed Section 10 of the law (RA 11212) covers the right of eminent domain: “The grantee may acquire such private property as is actually necessary for the realization of the purposes for which this franchise is granted… Provided, that proper expropriation proceedings shall have been instituted and just compensation paid.”
“What keeps us busy now,” Castro said, “is our commitment to rehabilitate the distribution system. When we took over, we discovered that we had to replace dilapidated facilities, notably 1,500 of rotting wooden poles. So far, we have replaced 25 percent of them with concrete poles.
“That task somehow inconveniences affected customers because we could not do it without allowing power outage in one or two hours. But what is a brownout of an hour or two in exchange for uninterrupted power supply later?”
Castro reminded us that the company had already imported and installed 12 “auto reclosers” that enable each feeder to trip off on detecting momentary faults, thus allowing linemen to correct them as soon as possible.
From the first day (February 29, 2020) to today that MORE Power has switched on, its customer base has rapidly expanded from 64,000 to 78,000.
Castro traced such expansion to the conversion of power pilferers into paying customers through effective persuasion. Even informal settlers may now legally connect in five easy steps, including filling up an application form, presenting a government-issued ID card, barangay certificate of residency, permit for temporary service connection with electrical plan and vicinity, and oath undertaking. They may pay their connection fees in easy installments.
Castro admitted that the number of power pilferers has diminished because of the company’s uncompromising legal moves against them.
“We continue to receive verifiable reports pinpointing persistent power pilferers,” Castro said. “In fairness to the legal users, we have no choice but to prosecute them.”
The penalty imposed for violation of the anti-power pilferage law (RA 7832) is reclusion temporal (imprisonment ranging from 12 to 20 years) or a fine ranging from fifty thousand pesos (P50,000) to one hundred thousand pesos (P100,000) or both at the discretion of the court.
We snatched the opportunity to ask the MORE president for basic info on the entry of retired SC Associate Justice Francis H. Jardeleza as an independent board director.
“An independent director,” Castro enthused, “represents the customers rather than the shareholders in the board. He is allowed to own only one share out of one billion shares of stocks.”
Aside from Jardeleza, Ilonggo businessman Tony Jon has also been appointed as an independent director.
Jardeleza’s reputation is legendary. He was in the legal team – along with retired SC Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay – that represented the Philippines in the arbitration case that ended in the July 2016 unanimous decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague junking China’s claim of historic rights over our claimed territories at the West Philippine Sea.
Jardeleza could also be the right person to advise the MORE management on how to proceed with the “just compensation” payable to PECO as provided by RA 11212.
By the way, I had the chance to talk to MORE lawyer Hector Teodosio, who had also heard of insinuations regarding PECO’s lawyers’ change of heart. Grapevine has it that they would now like MORE to pay PECO an advance of Php 470 million against the Php P481,842,450 offered as “just compensation”.
The RTC-Iloilo Branch 39 presided by Judge Victorino Maniba, Jr. has yet to decide on the matter, which could be difficult because of probable objection from the local government of Iloilo City. PECO is said to owe the city millions of pesos in taxes.
Then, too, an undetermined number of PECO’s customers are claiming for refund of bill deposits that could have overwhelmed MORE Power’s P481 million-plus “just compensation” offer.
Oh, what the heck were you thinking, Atty. Hec?
