Iloilo court allows MORE Power to take over PECO properties
MANILA, Philippines — Branch 24 of the Iloilo City Regional Trial Court has granted the request of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to take over the real estate properties of Panay Electric Co. (PECO), the power distribution facilities of which it had already expropriated.
The court issued a 24-page omnibus order last Sept. 24 allowing the expropriation of the following four properties in Iloilo City:
- a 76- square-meter land in Barangay General Hughes for the construction of a substation
- a 2,401- square-meter land and a 1,000-square-meter stockyard on Diversion Road in San Rafael, Mandurriao, Iloilo City
- PECO’s main office with two guest/ staff houses and a semi-concrete canteen covering a total area of 2,330 square meters on General Luna Street
“It is clear that plaintiff MORE can expropriate property other than properties used in the distribution system,” Presiding Judge Nestle Go said in his order.
“The wording of the law includes such private property as is actually necessary for the realization of the franchise, including, but not limited to poles, wires, cables, transformers, switching equipment and stations, buildings, infrastructure, machineries and equipment previously, currently, or actually used, or intended to be used, or have been abandoned, unused or underutilized,” he added.
Before this order was issued, MORE Power had already seized control of the Iloilo power grid, Congress having chosen to grant it a franchise instead of PECO.
For decades, it was PECO that had been providing power to Iloilo, although MORE Power repeatedly claimed that there were several problems while Peco was in charge.
Article continues after this advertisementLast August, MORE Power said it had removed more than 3,000 illegal connections in Iloilo City alone.
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