Distribution utility More Electric and Power Corp. (More Power) criticized Panay Electric Co. yesterday for allegedly continuing to confuse and deceive Iloilo City power consumers.
MORE Power president Roel Castro said it has been two years since the company extended a “reconciliation hand” to PECO to benefit consumers but the former distributor of Iloilo City has refused to cooperate.
“The relationship of More Power and PECO should not be viewed as a corporate war. More Power has nothing to do with PECO. We are here in Iloilo City not because we are after PECO but we are after the sorry state of facilities here, plagued with complaints of poor service, customer case and high electricity rates,” said Castro.
Castro said that PECO as a public utility, should put the interest of consumers and Iloilo City above everything else.
“There are consumers involved here, if PECO look at that perspective then they really should give way. We respect and understand that what they’re going through is painful, but at the end of the day, it’s the court and the regulator that will decide on the matter, whatever and whoever is affected should respect the decision,” he said.
Castro alleged that a faction within PECO continues to resist and tries to mislead the public even if most of their shareholders have already sided with More Power.
Castro also disputed PECO’s claims that More Power has no technical expertise to run the distribution system of Iloilo City.
MORE Power currently has 142 employees of which 70 are technical personnel of PECO which the new Iloilo utility firm absorbed and regularized, he said.
“There’s no point of saying that MORE has no technical knowledge. Management and resources may have changed but we have the same technical people and engineers,” Castro said.
MORE Power claimed PECO inflated its outage figures from February 16, 2020 to July 16, 2020. PECO claimed MORE Power’s outages reached 412 hours although the power interruptions reached only 182 hours.
Castro said the move aimed to show the alleged incompetence of More Power and once again deceive the public.