‘SWEET REDEMPTION’ FOR PECO CRITICS

‘VICTORY’ is “sweet” for advocates behind the “No to PECO Franchise Renewal” after Congress put an end to the Panay Electric Company’s (PECO) reign as Iloilo City’s utility distributor but it is sweeter after PECO’s charges against them were all dismissed by the Department of Justice.

In a decision recently penned by DOJ Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento, charges of conspiracy and falsification of public documents filed by PECO against its critics were “dismissed for utter lack of merit,” clearing the respondents, composed of lawyers Joshua Alim and Plaridel Nava II, along with Dr. Marigold Gonzales and Jane Javellana.

The dismissal is contained in a joint resolution signed by Malcontento along with DOJ State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra and Senior State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon.

In dismissing the case, the three state prosecutors stated in a document obtained by local media, Iloilo News that they found all the respondents not liable to the charges, noting “it is clear as the day that the respondents did not falsify any document.”

The DOJ officials also noted that lawyers Alim and Nava, who were Iloilo City councilors during that time, did not violate any provision of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) as averred by PECO.

It may be recalled that PECO charged the respondents over a ‘consumers’ manifesto’ against the company that were among the documents submitted in Congress during the period PECO’s application for a franchise renewal was under congressional scrutiny some three years ago.

PECO claimed the manifesto, which was signed by 27,000 persons, was falsified and was used in favor of another applicant, referring to MORE Power.

After rejecting PECO’s application, Congress, late in 2018, decided to give the franchise instead to MORE Power, which has already started operation as the new power distributor to Iloilo City and nearby areas.

The franchise obligated MORE Power to modify, improve, upgrade, and change the distribution facilities, systems, or the management and maintenance of the distribution facility and to continuously improve its facilities and employ the latest technology and innovations that promote efficiency and is beneficial to consumers.

PECO had also accused Alim and Nava of violating RA 3019 “because they were both public officers, being incumbent members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod at that time.”

The duo, in their counter affidavit, said that their action against PECO was in the behest of their role as public officials to act on complaints by the consumers on issues of overbilling, billing without reading, inefficient services, including abuses and arrogance of its employees, among others.

For their part, Gonzales and Javellana were charged for allegedly conspiring with the two lawyers and made it appear that the 27,000 signatories to the petition were legitimate, which PECO claimed as “fictitious and untruthful.”

‘Justice has prevailed’

Informed of the DOJ’s decision, Alim, who is now a full-time consumer advocate after taking a breather from politics, said that “justice has prevailed.”

“It’s pretty obvious from the very start that PECO has no legal basis in filing those cases against us.

“It was a harassment tactic just to get even with us after its franchise was not acted upon favorably by the Committee on Legislative Franchises in the Lower House,” he said.

For his part, Atty. Nava said, “It’s not just our victory. It is the victory of all consumers who fought hard against the oppressive PECO.”

Jane Javellana, who is now the Presidential Consultant for Western Visayas, meanwhile said that PECO’s charges were aimed not only to humiliate, but to harass them.

“It’s definitely a case of harassment to intimidate us and stop us in doing the right thing.

But we know that it was a fight worth fighting for. 

“The Ilonggos deserve better and we deserve more from our electric distributor,” Javellana stressed.