MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MEPC) allotted P1.7 B to modernize electricity distribution facilities in Iloilo City for the next three years.

MEPC President Roel Castro stated in a BusinessMirror report that the capital will be used to fund the distribution utility firm’s system, reliability projects, systems loss reduction projects, systems capacity projects, and safety improvement projects.

MORE sought to seize all the aging distribution network of Panay Electric Company (PECO) after President Duterte signed the Republic Act 11212, authorizing MORE to take over all and any facility and property  to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity in the province.

In related news, PECO announced that it has designated P1.1-B for its innovation spending and sustainable energy practices promotion in Visayas for the next ten years.

The provisional certificate of public convenience and necessity issued to PECO is deemed valid until MEPC has established and can fully operate its own distribution system. However, MEPC thought that it was late.

“If PECO spent that amount ten years ago, the Iloilo City Council would not have passed a resolution asking Congress to find a new distribution utility to manage the city’s electricity distribution system and the Senate and the House of Representatives would have renewed its franchise that expired this year. Instead, the Congress granted the franchise to MORE and President Rodrigo Duterte signed it into law,” Castro was quoted saying in the report.

“What the consumers in Iloilo are paying since years ago already includes that P1.1 billion which they did not invest in the past. So, it’s just right that they will pump it in because they owe it to the consumers. In fact, they have to spend that in ten weeks, not ten years,” Castro stated.