By Perla Lena | Philippine News Agency
ILOILO CITY – Iloilo City residents are assured of continuous power supply amid the ongoing legal battle between new power franchisee, More Electric and Power Corp., and the Panay Electric Co. (PECO).
This, after PECO was granted a provisional Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), in its order dated May 21 after an en banc deliberation.
The PECO’s CPCN was supposed to expire on May 25.
“Under the law, we (ERC) are authorized to grant PECO the necessary provisional CPCN during the interim period or until More Electric and Power Corp., the legislative franchisee, has established and can fully operate its own distribution system,” ERC chairperson Agnes Devanadera said in a press statement obtained by members of the media here Friday.
Together with the provisional CPCN are conditions such as that the CPCN covers only the “interim period” and “shall be automatically revoked and shall cease to have any force and effect, subject to the provision of Section 10 of Republic Act 11212, or the law granting franchise to More.”
“I would like to underscore the provision of the law that the provisional CPCN granted to PECO during the transition period shall not be construed as extending the franchise of PECO, which has expired on January 18, 2019. More, on the other hand, can exercise its right of eminent domain whereby it may acquire such private property that is actually necessary to enable it to perform its obligation to provide uninterrupted supply of electricity in Iloilo City,” Devanadera said.
Meanwhile, Roel Z. Castro, More president and chief operating officer, in an interview Friday described the ERC decision as “proper.”
“If they (PECO) were not given provisional authority, they don’t have a license, who will provide the electricity to the consumers?” he said.
He added that based on the secondary information, the provisional CPCN “hinged on the fact that they still have the assets.”
“I haven’t read the whole order but for me, it just contemplates that even ERC recognizes that there is already More who has the franchise. That is why the provisional approval of their CPCN is up to the point when you have the assets,” he added.
