Meralco bids for Pampanga power co-op

MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga, Philippines – Thousands of electric consumers in this city and six municipalites in this province have welcomed the bid of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and its Angeles City-based partner ComsTech to take over management of their power supply amid reports that the debt of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative 2 (Pelco 2) has reached over P1 billion.

“It’s a legacy that MVP wants for his native province, and so we are pursuing this,” said ComsTech president and chief executive officer Dennis Uy in a press briefing in Angeles. MVP refers to Kapampangan business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan who took over as chairman of Meralco in July last year.

Uy said he had several meetings with Pangilinan about the latter’s plans for “leaving some legacies to his province,” which include investments in energy-producing sanitary waste disposal systems. Pangilinan was born and raised in Apalit town.

He said that a joint Meralco and ComsTech venture had placed a bid for the takeover of Pelco II under an investment management contract (IMC) authorized by the National Electrification Administration (NEA). The venture turned out to be the sole bidder qualified but that other requirements still had to be complied with, he added.

 â€œPelco II will still own the cooperative, but the bidding winner would manage and operate it under IMC,” Uy explained, noting that the winner would also assume responsibility over the cooperative’s liabilities.

Reports from Pelco II said the bidder would have to initially spend some P700 million in the initial phase of the takeover.

Apart from this city with a population of about 300,000, Pelco II also distributes power to the towns of Guagua, Bacolor, Sta. Rita, Lubao, and Porac.  A survey conducted among its consumers indicated widespread dissatisfaction with their electric service, amid allegations of questionable bills.

“What we intend to do is adopt a system to make sure that those who read electric meters really do, and do so without merely guessing a household’s electric consumption,” said Uy whose ComsTech firm is reputed to be one of the biggest and most modern information-technology facility in the country.

Uy said that scores of Pelco II old-time personnel could not retire because the cooperative does not have funds for their retirement pay.

He also noted that Pelco II’s workforce is bloated with 500 personnel, despite estimates it would work efficiently with only 150. “All those who will have to go should, however, be given the proper benefits,” he added.

Already, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) has recently  sent Pelco II at least two notices of disconnection for failure to pay its debts, but Pelco II manager for Mabalacat Connie Muli would not confirm this.

Muli said that about 45 percent of Pelco II consumers are in this city and that amid reports of heavy systems losses, her office covering this city has been recording profits at least in the recent months.

In December last year, Pelco II board members adopted a resolution issued by the NEA inviting “all interested and qualified parties to participate in the bidding for provinding investments and the management of assets, operations, business and liabilities of Pelco II.”