The NPC’s Manuel Villar, through one of his companies, was recently granted by Congress a franchise to operate a telecommunications system throughout the Philippines, similar to Globe and Smart. A congressional franchise to operate any public utility business is difficult and expensive to obtain, and Villar’s corporate bloc in Congress certainly provided an advantage.
On the other hand, the NUP’s Enrique Razon is currently caught up in a controversy as he is accused of taking advantage of his political influence to grab the business of an existing electric franchise owner. Panay Electric Co. (Peco) has been distributing electricity in Iloilo City for the past 95 years. In July 2017, Peco applied to have its franchise renewed by Congress because it was set to expire in January 2019. Congress has sat on Peco’s application up to this date.
In contrast, and in a “record-breaking” period of three months, a company owned by Razon obtained the approval of both the House of Representatives and the Senate of its electric franchise, to replace Peco.
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