House OKs MORE Power franchise expansion

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March 11, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The bill seeking to expand the franchise area of MORE Electric and Power Corp. owned by tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. is now heading to the Senate after strong backing in the lower chamber.

With 247 affirmative votes, four negative and zero abstentions, the House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading House Bill 7647, which will extend MORE Power’s service area beyond Iloilo City.

If enacted into law, the measure will enable the company to expand its electric service to the municipalities of Iloilo’s first district, including Igbaras, Tubungan, Oton, Tigbauan, Guimbal, Miag-ao and San Joaquin.

“The respective towns in the first district of Iloilo Province have passed resolutions requesting assistance in passing a measure that would allow them to be covered by MORE Power’s franchise area,” said Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin, who authored the bill.

Garin expects the franchise expansion to allow more consumers to benefit from the “fast, reliable and modern electric power distribution services that MORE Power has been known to deliver.”

HB 7647 seeks to amend several provisions of MORE Power’s existing franchise under Republic Act 11212, which authorized the company to operate and maintain power distribution networks in Iloilo City.

Since starting operations in Iloilo City in 2020, MORE Power has invested heavily in infrastructure upgrades and modernization.

These investments include replacing aging power distribution lines and enhancing substations and monitoring systems to reduce losses and improve outage response times.