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When the countryside lived simply with only moonlight in the sky, aided by a “petromax or gasera” inside the homes during the night; when the western part of Misamis Oriental lived through the shadows cast by Iligan and Cagayan de Oro which has enjoyed the consumption of light…The Philippine Government dreamt of cascading development to the farthest reach, through which, Misamis Oriental-1 Rural Electric Service Cooperative or MORESCO-1, came into view, pioneering electrification through cooperation.

With the initiation of then Senator Emmanuel Pelaez, whose roots came from Misamis Oriental, Republic Act 2717 came into life in the year 1960 known as the Electrification Administration Act, hence, he was called the Father of the Philippine Rural Electrification and Missionary Electrification Program.

In October of 1962, President Diosdado Macapagal implemented the law and the government policy to furnish inexpensive and dependable power facilities for the promotion of agricultural and industrial development, thus, the creation of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) followed suit. NEA is a government agency responsible for the supervision of all the Electric Cooperatives in the country.

MORESCO-1, came into being as a result of the survey and feasibility study carried out in 1967 by a team contracted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with the U.S National Rural Electric Service Cooperative Association (NRECA). NRECA also furnished advisors to MORESCO and the other pilot project built concurrently in Negros Occidental- the Victorias-Manapla-Cadiz Rural Electric Service Cooperative (VRESCO), a system complete with generating facilities. Aimed at establishing viable power systems in the far-flung and less populated areas, MORESCO was envisioned to eventually serve the hundreds of thousand of power-end users. The electricity is supplied by the generation system (Genco) of the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR).

MORESCO-1 was organized in 1967 with ten (10) districts, one (1) in each municipality and with each municipality represented by a director. During the organization drive, public meetings were held and some 6,000 people indicated their intentions of becoming a member. The Coop was organized with 100 incorporators each making a 50-peso payment to generate the 5,000-peso-capital required under Philippine laws for registration.

In August of 1968, the Cooperative was granted separate loans by the USAID through the Development Bank of the Philippines and a peso counterpart from the Philippine government through NEA, with Former President Ferdinand Marcos, as the main signatory of the agreement of the said entities with MORESCO-1.

A year later in September, Republic Act 5445, paved the way for MORESCO-1’s acquisition of franchise area, for its electric service delivery to the communities in the Western district of Misamis Oriental.

The original franchise area of MORESCO-1 covers only the 10 municipalities in the Western part of Misamis Oriental. In conformity of its missionary electrification thrust and due to the request of the communities, MORESCO-1 has expanded which include the non-viable 15 barangays of Cagayan de Oro City, part of Talakag and Baungon in the Province of Bukidnon; and Barangay Hindang of Iligan City, originally within the franchise area of a private distribution utility.

The year 2004 was a milestone for MORESCO-1 when it achieved 100% energization of the 156 barangays under its coverage area thereby nailing it a record. It is now working on bringing the power lines to the sitios.

As of 2006, it incurred a growth rate of potential consumers for about 6.01% average in the last four years serving 42, 910 consumers. And in 2007 it reached 50,143 connections.

MORESCO-1’s Systems Loss is consistently at single digit for the past 10 years, competently improving from 7% in 2003 to 6.74% in 2006, and 6.5% in 2007, with a 99.58% collection efficiency.

Today, it has lived the day 46 years after its inception. This is MORESCO-1’s pride, ably manned through the years – technically, institutionally and financially — the people behind its success are its most significant asset, together with the people and institutions it has worked with.