By Ben Rosario The Panay Electric Co. (PECO) appeared headed to the same fate as embattled ABS-CBN Corporation whose appeal for legislative franchise renewal remained without action from the House of Representatives for years. Like ABS-CBN, PECO’s legislative franchise renewal contained in House Bill 4101 has failed to elicit action from the House Committee on Legislative Franchises since the previous Congress. The House panel’s apparent snub of PECO has entangled the former Iloilo City power distributor into a legal battle with the More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) which won the first round of a court case pending before the Regional Trial Court of Iloilo City. PECO has defied a recent order from the court enjoining parties in the expropriation case filed by MORE Power against PECO from discussing the legal issue publicly, the petitioner said. Previous to the issuance of gag order, Iloilo City Judge Emerald Requina Contreras reiterated the grant of a writ of possession to MORE Power as the court directed its sheriff to turn over [possession of distribution assets of PECO to MORE. MORE Power said the gag order was ignored by PECO when its lawyer, Estrella Elamparo, held a two-hour press conference at the Ilustrado Restaurant in Manila on Tuesday. “Nalilito kami ngayon (We are confused), we are not saying anything extraneous. Lahat narrated in our pleadings.. (These allegations are a) matter of public record... We're not trying to influence the court but correcting the matter,” Elamparo declared during the press conference. In her March 2, 2020 order reiterating the gag directive for all participants in the expropriation case filed by MORE Power against PECO, Contreras had cited Elamparo for giving “malicious statements on air” of an alleged meeting between the RTC Judge and MORE Power owner Enrique Razon Jr. Contreras stated in her gag order that she would not allow "this misbehavior of counsels whenever the (court) judgment is adverse to their client” to influence here actions and decisions regarding the case, and stressed she would “not be dissuaded to further hear the case with utmost impartiality.” The Iloilo City RTC judge declared that Elamparo’s behavior “will be dealt with by the court accordingly.”