Senate panel OKs bill amending MORE Power franchise

A Senate panel on Thursday approved a bill that would allow More Electric and Power Corporation (MORE) to expand its services to towns outside Iloilo City.

The Senate public services committee has terminated the hearing on House Bill 10306, which seeks to revise Sections 1, 15 and 21 of Republic Act No 11212 or the law providing the franchise for MORE as a distribution utility in Iloilo City.

Despite the approval, Senate public services committee chairperson Grace Poe said this franchise bill should be scrutinized further at the plenary.

“I will sponsor this measure [on the floor] not because I am saying that we agree already with this in principle, but because I would like to hear the opinion of all of our colleagues in the Senate,” she said.

“In the interpellation process, all of the questions we have in mind will hopefully be addressed so that there's an open discussion and the public can hear it. Hindi po ito [this is not] favoring one over the other, but what is for the greater good and where else can we better present this in the open but through a plenary discussion,” she added.

Among the matters that should be discussed in this bill are the capability of MORE to adapt to the needs and demographics of different localities in Iloilo, the possible renegotiation of cost of power supply with the regulators, and the issue on MORE’s exclusivity in giving services in the towns in Iloilo.

“Certainly, it was pointed out that in [the Electric Power Industry Reform Act] competition is really encouraged and as mentioned in the Constitution, no franchise [should] be exclusive in character. So there is also a question on that which we need to validate,” Poe said.

Poe then encouraged Iloilo II Electric Cooperative, Inc., another electric distribution utility servicing 15 municipalities in Iloilo, to “work overtime” as they are eyeing to consider the franchise measure for MORE.

“If by that time we are discussing this and this is not addressed by Ileco, we might be forced to consider this franchise, not forced, but in the interest of competition, I think, we could consider this franchise,” she said. — BM, GMA News