Panay Electric claims recent Iloilo City blackouts a ‘sabotage’

Iloilo City’s sole power distributor Panay Electric Co. (PECO) is claiming that the two successive days of power outages in its service area could have been a work of sabotage.

Citing power industry insiders, PECO claimed that the two-day power outage that hit Iloilo on October 29 and 30 was deemed “highly irregular.”

Two coal-fired power plants were shut down—the Global Business Power-owned PEDC plant and the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC).

PECO head of Public Engagement and Government Affairs Marcelo Cacho noted that the shutdown was not caused by the power distribution utility.

“The blackout happened because of factors beyond the control of PECO and yet MORE Power conveniently used the incident to show us in a bad light by conveniently overlooking the facts,” Cacho said.

“First of all, we must clarify that PECO is a power distributor and not a power generator,” he said.

“We only distribute the power that is generated through the NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines),” he added.

PECO and Enrique Razon-led MORE Power are locked in conflict over the rights to serve as Iloilo City’s power distribution utility.

The widespread power outage came at a time when power distributorship in Iloilo is being contested in the courts by current power distributor PECO and newcomer More Electric Power Corp. (MORE Power) which plans to take over PECO’s assets.

These fueled speculations that the extended blackout was due to efforts meant to disparage PECO as the current power provider in Iloilo and to be used as leverage for propaganda, according to PECO.

MORE Power president Roel Castro told GMA News Online on Thursday that PECO must prove “factually and objectively” its claim of sabotage.

“Prove before making any statement!” Castro said.

“Given the state of their system, plus a master electrician running the operations, there is no need for sabotage for the extended blackout to happen,” he said.

Cacho, however, said that the shutdown of coal-fired power plants and the near-simultaneous fires that burned electic poles in different areas of Iloilo made him wonder if “there’s something happening behind the scenes.”

“Customers are asking us: Is this sabotage by those who want to ease us out of Iloilo to force our hand to give up? I certainly hope not,” Cacho said. —VDS, GMA News