Iloilo to elevate worsening blackouts to Duterte
Disgruntled Iloilo City power consumers are elevating their concern to President Rodrigo Duterte given the worsening brownouts that already reached 326 hours in the past four months since the assumption of MORE Electric and Power Corporation as a service provider in the area.
In a press briefing over the weekend, Iloilo City consumers said their power supply woes are further aggravated by recent bill shocks.
In addition, they are also appealing to the Supreme Court, believing that a favorable decision from the country’s highest judicial body could finally resolve the legal scuffle between MORE and former provider Panay Electric Company (PECO) — as the protracted legal battle served as the root cause of the incessant power interruptions that have been impacting adversely on their quality of life and taking toll on economic opportunities for the area.
Ruperto Supeña, chairman of the Koalisyon Bantay Kuryente, said “Iloilo is dying and needs the help of President Duterte. We hope that you will enter the picture and you give our problem a finality here. We hope that this will be acted upon by the President.”
He added, “We do not want our kababayans to continue suffering. We don’t want our agony to continue and our economy to deteriorate… that’s our ultimate move,” emphasizing that their strategy is to gather thousands of signatures before sending formal petition to the Office of the President.
Congress is also being urged to take a second look at the franchise granted to MORE Power, with Supeña stressing “there’s still chance for Congress to change its course on the grant of the franchise,” given the myriad of complaints from consumers now on the firm’s “mediocre” service provision.
He further blamed MORE Power for disruptions in local businesses. “Their long and frequent brownouts are killing our businesses and livelihoods, and they are disrupting our essential medical services. We need the President to intervene, so he can keep a watchful eye on those who would exploit us.”
Primarily, he reckoned that the approximate 13-hour power outage that happened on June 20 in Mandurriao on the eve of Father’s Day celebration, should have been addressed in a duration of just one-hour if the servicing utility can genuinely lean on technical competence and expertise in power distribution of the company’s organization.
On the exorbitant billings, KBK Coordinator Jose Allen Aquino said they are currently collating all complaints from affected consumers – including those on electric bills that doubled as well as the questionable billing gaps – and will submit these as pieces of evidence to the Energy Regulatory Commission and Congress, so they can be prompted to carry out serious investigations on the matter.
He cited the case of Iloilo City National High School which February billing cycle prior to the Covid19 lockdown was at ₱200,000, but at the height of the ECQ when there had been no classes, the school’s electric bill shoot up to ₱350,000. The consumer group said there was no explanation provided by MORE Power yet on this particular billing case.