Treņas sends four councilors to ERC hearings
Iloilo City -- Four members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod will be looking after the welfare of Ilonggo power consumers when the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) holds its hearings to resolve the Panay Electric Company (PECO)-Panay Power Corporation (PPC) power rates controversy.
In Memorandum Order # 05 issued last January 5, Treņas named Councilors Jed Patrick Mabilog, Jose Espinosa III, Merci Drilon-Garcia, Julienne Baronda and City Legal Officer Edgardo Gil as the city government official representatives to the ERC hearings.
Treņas also requested ERC chairman Rodolfo Albano to conduct the forthcoming hearings at the Session Hall of the Sangguniang Panlungsod. In a letter sent on the same day that Memorandum Order No. 05 was issued, the mayor asked Albano for the city council venue "since local consumers will be the ones to be adversely affected by the turnout of PECO's petition for increased power rates."
The commission is presently looking into the merits of PECO's petition for reconsideration on the unbundled power rates that drastically reduced the power rate it is charging local consumers by some P2 per kilowatt-hour.
The rate reduction reportedly caused PPC, PECO's power supplier, to incur some P360-million in accumulated losses in three months after ERC ordered a cutdown in the generation charge imposed by PECO.
The power monopoly is originally charging P6.80 per kilowatt-hour for its generation charge, but the recent ERC ruling compelled it to reduce its billing to P3.70 per kilowatt-hour. (Adora B. Bandorio/PIO)