As the power supply situation in the region remains unstable and the threat of another massive blackout remains on the horizon, a silent war which started in the halls of Congress a year ago, is slowly creeping its way to the next level with public relations groups and a few media outfits and personalities starting an information campaign. This after a recent successful takeover in the guise of a joint venture of an ailing and weak electric cooperative in Negros Occidental.
MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE), the power distribution utility of Iloilo City, has activated its PR machinery and is starting to sow doubts and intrigues against ILECOs 1, 2 and 3. Its immediate target is the perceived weaker and easier to shake ILECO 2 in the context on an advantageous political anchor in the person of 4th District Representative Ferj Biron who has facilitated at least two meetings among the general managers of the three electric cooperatives and the president of MORE in order to open the discussion of a joint venture and business partnership. It will be unfair if Biron is to be identified as the point man of MORE’s owner Enrique Razon though other than being one of the political figures in Iloilo he is an accomplished businessman who may not have accumulated the same level of wealth as that of Razon but his success can command respect and a proposal of partnership from bigger businessmen. Yet, to say that Biron is the brain behind the negative information campaign would mean disrespect since it is also his responsibility to find ways and means to improve the delivery of services including that of power in his district and perhaps he only wants better power distribution services in his area, the area of operation of ILECO 2.
It all boils down to the question of the electric cooperatives operating outside the powers of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) where the basic principle is ownership of the members and a yearly patronage refund and dividends given back to all its members. A separate discussion will take a look and dissect this point of view. Meantime, another contention being navigated by the (dis)information operatives of MORE is the unstable development of plans of each electric cooperative. The general idea they are spreading is simplified in terms of the capitalization capacity of a private firm owned by the likes of Razon which can spend and absorb the impact of huge investments in their operations unlike that of an electric cooperative that depends on its collection as the basis of its capital expenditure (capex). What they failed to declare and would rather not explain is the logic behind government-sanctioned and approved projects of the electric cooperatives which are not passed on to their consumers. As a matter of fact, in a matter time, Iloilo City consumers will have to contend to another rate increase as MORE begins passing on to their consumers the costs of their investments. It should not be counted against them though as the law allows such to recover their investments.
The first hit was ILECO 2. Now, they are asking for the development plan of ILECO 3, the power distribution utility up north of Iloilo whose energization rate is at 97% having to deal with the difficult energization of the island barangays and expects to have it completed by 2028. ILECO 3 is by far the first DU that will make use of the Cloud Technology for its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) which is integrated in their cloud-based smart metering that will pilot in the town of Estancia early next year. Expectedly, ILECO 1 will have its share of scrutiny in order to expose its weakness and propose the entry of MORE. They have started mobilizing in Pavia early last year but have gone to hiatus after facing setbacks and unmeet schedules due to the pending petition of the electric cooperatives against them at the Supreme Court.
The end point here is killing the competition in the guise of putting up a better option for the consumers. Exclusivity though has been proven time and again as abusive and arrogant. Will the consumer-members of the three electric cooperatives eventually yield? How will the political clout of Razon affect the stand of the general managers of each electric cooperative and members of its respective boards? Will the pro-people stand of Governor Toto Defensor Sr. eventually change in lieu of the better and more capable service offering and promise of MORE? The questions are endless. In the meantime, we can only wait and see how Razon and his wealth manipulate the existing statures that protect the electric cooperatives from being abused to serve the interest of just a few.
