House OKs franchise for Iloilo power company

MANILA, Philippines —  The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on Monday night a bill granting More Minerals Corp. a franchise to distribute electricity in Iloilo City, now serviced by Panay Electric Co. (Peco).

Four congressmen – Makmod Mending of Anak Mindanao, Arnulfo Teves of Negros Oriental, Anthony Bravo of Coop-Natcco and Joseph Stephen Paduano of Abang Lingkod party-lists – questioned the decision of the committee on legislative franchises not to endorse the renewal of Peco’s franchise, which expires at the end of this year despite the recommendation of the Energy Regulatory Commission as early as November 2017.

“The House will face the people’s wrath if the non-renewal of Peco’s franchise will result in power outages in Iloilo City,” Mending said.

He said the committee on franchises chaired by Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez should have at least endorsed the provisional extension of Peco’s franchise for one to two years to ensure a smooth transition in case another firm takes over its operations.

“Or at least it should have allowed two distributors to compete and offer better services at a cheaper price to Iloilo City residents,” Mending said.– Delon Porcalla