Undue haste by House panel on legislative franchises

THE undue haste by the House of Representatives panel on legislative franchises, headed by Palawan Rep. Franz Josef Alvarez, will revert back Iloilo City and Panay island to the dark ages.

Early last October, the Alvarezled committee moved to give the franchise of the 95-year-old power utility Panay Electric Co. (PECO) to a new applicant. This sent up in arms the Private Electric Power Operators Association (PEPOA), the country’s umbrella group of private power distributors.

Assailing the move as “whimsical, pernicious, and irrational,” PECO electricity end-users said that the favored applicant, More Minerals Corp. (MMC), a mining outfit, has yet to set up the needed infrastructure for power distribution.

To install power infrastructure covering PECO service areas in Western Visayas entails huge capital expenditures. Such financial burden would naturally be passed on to power-users, their power rates would soar, and, needless to say, would be detrimental to all end-users.

“This development is deeply concerning to us as it puts a highly urbanized city like Iloilo at risk,” PEPOA’s letter to the Alvarez panel said.

PEPOA President Ranulfo Ocampo brushed aside unfounded claims, alleging that PECO failed to comply with a 2014 Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order to refund over-billed customers 1631 million, including end-user complaints over bills that rose by as much as 1,000 percent under a new metering scheme.

Ocampo pointed out that ERC official records show that such complaints comprised a negligible 0.01 percent of PECO’s over 60,000 customers.

“This is not something new to the industry and is certainly not sufficient basis for withholding the franchise renewal of PECO,” Ocampo added.

PECO has been in the business for 95 years till now. It is one of the top performers in the industry. Public records show that its System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) was among the highest in the country.

“They (PECO) are among the top 15 percent in terms of positive reliability performance compared to the other 146 electric distribution utilities in the country,” Ocampo said.

The bill is now under scrutiny in the Senate and Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Public Services Committee. She’s seems inclined to grant more franchise.