MEMBERS of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises grilled the Northern Davao Electric Cooperative (Nordeco) over its alleged repeated failures in delivering quality, affordable and reliable power to consumers within its franchise area.
During a recent hearing of the panel, Nordeco expressed its disapproval of a bill that would expand the franchise of Davao Light and Power Co. to its coverage area, which involves 16 municipalities and two cities in Davao del Oro and Davao del Norte.
Nordeco claimed that the bill will grant Davao Light the power of eminent domain to private entities who wish to take over government-owned property, alleging it would violate the Civil Code, which grants freedom to parties to decide the value of assets that would be sold and would legislate a power rate of 20 centavo per kilowatt-hour, which encroaches over the Energy Regulatory Commission's jurisdiction in supervising power rates.
Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Rep. Margarita Ignacia Nograles reiterated that these arguments had been repeated and had been refuted over the past two years of deliberations, noting that the current bill had already addressed Nordeco's concerns, such as stranded costs and the value of assets that would be sold.
"Ang totoong tanong dito: Masaya ba ang mga taong nasa ilalim niyo? Na pino-provide niyo? Hindi! Umiiyak na ang mga tao sa inyo dahil mataas masyado ang kuryente (The real question here is: Are the people happy under you? On the services you provide? No! People are crying because electricity rates are high). And here is a company with a good track record willing to come in and help the people supposedly being served by Nordeco," Nograles said.
Panel chairman and Parañaque 2nd District Rep. Gustavo Tambunting said that the committee has given enough time for Nordeco to voice its concerns.
"I think Nordeco would also agree that so much leeway has been given, and it has been a very transparent and open hearing. Your request has been accommodated ten times over, hopefully we could come to a compromise," Tambunting said.
Davao Oriental 2nd District Rep. Cheeno Miguel Almario empathized with Nordeco's consumers who have been suffering from consistent power outages and electricity bills.
"The question I want to ask is: What are you protecting? Are you protecting the disgruntled consumers?... To be honest, it's very frustrating that you can't do anything about it," Almario said.
"The reason why I am very passionate about this is because I know what it feels like to have terrible electricity, and this is for the interest of the constituency," he added.
The panel later approved a report that would expand the franchise of Davao Light and Power to include parts of Davao del Norte, a move lauded by the Davao Consumer Movement (DCM).
"The passage of this bill into law would be a victory for consumers in Davao del Norte as they will finally gain freedom from high electricity bills and consistent power outages," DCM convenor Ryan Amper said.
He added that the passage of the committee report is a "step forward in our fight for a better power distributor, and we hope that the House of Representatives, Senate and Malacañang would join forces together and enact a policy that would empower the Davao Region."
Anton Perdices, AboitizPower Distribution Group chief operating officer, assured that they will do a round of competitive selection process to ensure power rates will remain competitive and open it up to all generators to ensure the least cost generation.
Davao Light and Power is part of the AboitizPower group.
"So that way we can ensure that the prices either maintain or go lower but to absorb all of it, it is not part of the bill. So we don't see that scenario where the price for Davao light will go up by 0.30 centavos," Perdices said.