Published November 22, 2018, 10:00
PM By Myrna
M. Velasco
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has
apprised media that the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Electrification
Administration (NEA) are now ready to take over Panay Electric Cooperative
(PECO) to manage it through transition to its new owner MORE Electric and Power
Company of tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.
“We organized a task force in case there will
be problem, if there will be no settlement in the issue,” the energy chief
stressed.
Razon, for his part, has debunked
allegations that his group “does not have qualifications to run an electric
company.”
He chided “we certainly never want
to have the qualifications of PECO. We are exactly the opposite of PECO because
we have a track record of success in start-ups and large-scale projects not
only in the Philippines but globally.”
Razon stressed “PECO has become a
rent-seeking business run by the family who are multiplying and draining the
resources and earnings of PECO through dividends for themselves.”
The business tycoon who is injecting
P2.0 billion fresh capital into PECO likewise lamented that “they are a
throwback to the hacienderos of lore,” adding that incumbent owners “behave
like the franchise is a birth right.”
Razon rapped that “PECO has one of
the highest generation charges in the country, and is P2.50 per kilowatt hour
higher than in Manila, Cebu and Davao.”
He added that some non-government
organizations even claim that “iloilo City’s electricity prices are the highest
among 70 countries in the world.”
Razon similarly opined the Iloilo
utility firm’s distribution charge has been low, with him qualifying that “this
is clear evidence that PECO has not made any meaningful investments in their
facilities for decades.”
The billionaire claimed that the
power firm’s “distribution lines, transformers and substations are also
probably 95 years old.”
He added “as seen throughout Iloilo.
PECO has undersized and crowded feeders, leaning poles, disorganized service
drops, unsafe clearances of lines, substations and transformers.”
Such, he further stressed, “resulted
in frequent power outages and service interruptions,” rendering PECO then to
have “extremely poor reliability indices.”
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