Northern Davao Electric Cooperative or NORDECO blasted the proposed House Bills 5077, 6740, 6995 and 7047, all seeking to expand the franchise area of Davao Light and Power Company Inc. as a possible source of a “constitutional crisis.”
In a press statement on Tuesday, NORDECO legal counsel Atty. Jeorge Rapista lamented that these four bills, if passed into law, might substantially amend the existing franchises of electricity distributors in Mindanao, including the one it is maintaining.
“The constitution does not allow laws that impair contracts. With HBs 5077, 6740, 6995 and 7047, existing contracts of NORDECO will be substantially impaired. For example, power supply contracts will be servicing a much smaller franchise area,” Rapista explained.
The bills were recently deliberated upon by lawmakers on the possible violation of the Constitution and Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
As such, instead of a franchise area amendment that may adversely affect the industry, some policymakers recently pointed out that what Mindanao needed is a measure to help improve the services of the island’s power distributors.
Congressmen APEC Partylist Rep. Sergio Dagooc and PHILRECA Partylist Rep. Presley de Jesus, at a recent hearing, proposed that the House should work on creating measures that will protect the existing contracts of electric cooperatives.
Project areas reviewed
Likewise, they agreed that policymakers should adopt a bill instituting proper administrative processes to review franchise areas.
It can be recalled that in July 2022, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., vetoed the bill proposing to expand the franchise of the Davao Light “due to, among others, its susceptibility to infringe on the franchise coverage area of the NORDECO.”
NORDECO currently serves most of the municipalities and cities that were proposed to be transferred to Davao Light. Meanwhile, Davao Light’s franchise area covers Davao City, areas of Panabo City, and the municipalities of Carmen, Dujali and Santo Tomas in Davao del Norte. MBr