No CPCN yet for MORE on takeover of Iloilo power utility

By Myrna M. Velasco – March 13, 2020, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has clarified that Razon-led MORE Electric and Power Corporation has not been officially granted yet with certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) relative to its takeover and targeted operations of a power distribution utility in Iloilo City.

It was cleared by ERC Hearing Officer Atty Maria Corazon Gines that there had been no official order issued or signed by the Commission on MORE Electric’s application for CPCN.

The regulatory body emphasized that a CPCN is required before a company can start power distribution services in an area.

MORE Electric had seized five distribution substations owned by Panay Electric Company (PECO) recently on the strength of an initial regional trial court (RTC) ruling in Iloilo, but that had also been explicated later on by the judicial body that it would still be PECO that will continually operate its distribution facilities.

Following the reported frantic takeover of the PECO substations last February 28, Iloilo RTC Judge Emerald Contreras subsequently issued an order directing MORE Electric to return control of the distribution facilities to the Cacho-led utility firm.

Meanwhile, it was released to the media last week that MORE Electric already secured a provisional CPCN based on a letter of ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera to MORE Electric President and CEO Ruel Castro and PECO President and CEO Luis Miguel Cacho.

And during the March 11 hearing at the ERC, MORE Electric legal counsel Carlo Verzo indicated that he received the letter on March 5 this year, but he declined to reveal the source of the copy, invoking “lawyer-client privilege.”

In that same proceeding at the power regulatory agency, PECO in a statement to the media, has noted that the lawyer of MORE Electric by far admitted that “his copy was not officially received.”

Gines likewise told the parties during the hearing that MORE Electric had not furnished the regulatory body of the “addendum to the writ of possession” that was issued on March 6 by the Iloilo RTC judge.

The addendum stipulated that PECO would still operate the power distribution facilities and shall continually serve the consumers of Iloilo City, until the protracted legal battle between the parties shall be resolved.

PECO legal counsel Estrella Elamparo averred that based on the turn of recent developments, “this just proves what we’ve been saying for weeks, that this is an illegal corporate takeover.”