“Instead of acting on PECO’s application for the renewal of its congressional franchise, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved instead a franchise for Razon’s MORE.

I get it when the rich are merely being themselves, but it spins my head on the kind who has no empathy and who thrives on the misery of others.

Take, for example, Marcelo Cacho, scion of the uber-rich Cacho clan of Iloilo City, whose family has lorded over the business and economic climate of the West Visayan city with their 95-year monopoly over the distribution of electricity.

Cacho, the Public Engagement and Government Affairs head of franchise-less Panay Electric Co. (PECO), has announced the company would be spending P1.1 billion in improving the city’s electricity distribution system. But even if the business spends P1.1 billion on a distribution system, PECO can no longer distribute electricity in Iloilo City and nearby municipalities because Congress has awarded the franchise to another company, MORE Electric and Power Corp., late last year.

In other words, Cacho is announcing an expansion plan for a business that no longer exists because the business has lost its franchise, an authority that the State grants to any corporation to deliver a service that benefits Filipino consumers.

The scion’s announcement would have made sense had the Court of Appeals (CA) upheld its petition questioning the expropriation of its distribution assets by MORE, a company owned by multi-billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., who is also investing close to P10 billion in developing two Iloilo ports to serve as alternative cargo handling hub this part of Southeast Asia as business increases between the Philippines and its neighbors, spurred also by the trade friction between China and the United States.

The CA, in a 17-page decision handed down by Associate Justice Alfredo Ampuan, said it has no jurisdiction over the case filed by PECO since only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over cases of distribution utilities as provided for in Republic Act 9136, or the Electricity Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA.

Ampuan said even if the CA has jurisdiction over the case, PECO still failed to show its business suffered from the expropriation of its distribution assets in Iloilo City because it no longer owns the distribution utility franchise, since Congress gave it to MORE, a decision signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte as Republic Act 11212.

PECO’s argument that MORE’s expropriation of its distribution assets will plunge Iloilo City into blackout also does not make sense as it is what MORE, as the new franchise holder, is doing in taking over PECO’s antediluvian distribution assets.

“As for PECO’s fear of having Iloilo City plunged into darkness, suffice it to say that MORE is actually averting the same by pursuing its obligations as the grantee of a Legislative Franchise to operate,” Justice Ampuan pointed out.

In his decision, Justice Ampuan said Congress granted MORE the distribution franchise in Iloilo City as part of its powers under the EPIRA, a law that restructures the electricity industry to make it more efficient and ensure continuous and assured supply of affordable electricity for Filipino consumers.

Previously, Congress ignored PECO’s own application for the renewal of its distribution franchise that expired early this year because of a series of complaints by irate Iloilo consumers and businesses. This subsequently morphed into open anger when the utility’s billing system exploded into one big mess prior to the Senate hearing. That very public inquiry into PECO’s business practices revealed, for example, that its consumers were billed 1,000 percent higher than their previous billing.

Instead of acting on PECO’s application for the renewal of its congressional franchise, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved instead a franchise for Razon’s MORE.

RA 11212, which put into law MORE’s legislative franchise, gave PECO a temporary permit to continue its operations until MORE has completed the transition, granting it the power of eminent domain so it could take over any asset, including electric poles and other distribution assets by PECO, so it can do its job assigned to it by Congress and Malacañang.

Had Marcelo Cacho announced that PECO was willing to spend P1.1 billion five years ago, he would have made sense then. Now, it only comes out a pathetic attempt to increase the value of whatever properties the company may be selling to MORE.