THE House Committee on Legislative Franchises chaired by Rep. Gus Tambunting on Monday approved the consolidation of House Bills (HBs) 9793, 9813 and 10317 and its amended version, seeking the renewal for another 25 years the franchise granted to the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
HBs 9793, 9813 and 10317 are authored by House Committee on Ways and Means chairperson Joey Sarte Salceda, House Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairperson Rufus Rodriguez and House Committee on Energy chairperson Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, respectively.
Rodriguez pushed for the approval of the committee, saying, “Practically everything has been discussed, and has been ventilated, and have been answered” in the two marathon hearings previously held.
Velasco added, “Meralco has long been serving our country well, and I truly believe they are deserving of a new franchise.”
Under its existing franchise, Meralco is authorized to construct, operate and maintain a distribution system for the conveyance of electric power to consumers in the cities and municipalities and barangays of Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon and Pampanga.
Salceda asked the committee to consider aligning the consolidated bill with Republic Act (RA) 12011, which granted the Negros Electric Power Corporation (NEPC) a franchise to manage and operate a distribution utility in Negros. RA 12011 is the first electric distribution franchise recently signed by President Marcos.
“It is reasonable to take the NEPC franchise as this administration’s policy on legislative franchises for distribution utilities,” Salceda said.
The panel also approved, upon motion of PHILRECA Party-list Rep. Presley de Jesus, HB 9696 granting the franchise to operate distribution systems to Sorsogon I Electric Cooperative Inc. (SORECO I), and HBs 9775 and 9838, granting the same to Sorsogon Electric Cooperative II (SORECO II).
HB 9696, authored by Rep. Wowo Fortes, would grant SORECO I the franchise to operate in the areas of Bulan, Bulusan, Casiguran, Irosin, Juban, Magallanes, Matnog and Sta.Magdalena in Sorsogon.
HBs 9775 and 9838, authored by Reps. Marie Bernadette Escudero and Fortes respectively, grants SORECO II the franchise to operate in the areas of Donsol, Pilar, Castilla, Gubat, Prieto Diaz and Barcelona in Sorsogon.
