SC orders DOE, ERC to comment on Meralco power rate hike

By MARK MERUEÑAS, GMA News

Published January 9, 2014 10:08am

(Updated 11:28 a.m.) The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered energy regulators to submit their respective comments on the record-high power rate increase being sought by the Manila Electric Company.

In a "whereas order," the court told the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission to send their comments on the controversial electricity rate increase not later than January 17, and to attend the January 21 SC oral argument on the matter, SC Public Information Office chief and spokesman Theodore Te told reporters in a briefing.

Te cited Rule 3 Section 9 and Rule 3 Sec. 11of the Rules of Court that authorizes the court to add parties to a case, saying the high court included the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation and other power-generating companies holding Meralco supply contracts as additional parties.

The high court also required the DOE and the ERC to attend a preliminary conference on January 13, where the high court and the parties will have to agree on which key issues to tackle during the oral argument.

'Nominal parties'

In motions filed last January 2 via the Office of the Solicitor General, the DOE and ERC said only Meralco should be required to comment on the two petitions opposing the move of power utility Meralco.

"Inasmuch as public respondents ERC and DOE are... in the two petitions merely as nominal parties, they are not required to file comment as provided in the aforequoted provision of the Rules of Court," according to the OSG.

The OSG said only Meralco has the "duty... to appear and defend, in its behalf and that of public respondents, unless public respondents are specifically directed by this honorable court."

The consolidated petitions were from a group of party-list lawmakers from Bayan Muna, Gabriela Women's Party, and Act Teachers, and from the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) and the Federation of Las Piñas Homeowners Association.

Meralco's claim

The petitions stemmed from Meralco's plan to increase – on staggered basis – electricity rates by P4.15 per kilowatt-hour, citing the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas platform from November 10 to December 11.

Meralco claimed it was forced to buy expensive electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market to meet the 2,700-megawatt deficit for peak load demand of Luzon.

The P4.15-increase was supposed to have been divided into three tranches consisting of a P2 raise last December, P1 in February, and P0.44 in March, along with the corresponding taxes and service charges.

Two days before Christmas, however, the SC issued a temporary restraining order stopping Meralco from imposing the power rate hike.

The petitioners argued that automatic rate adjustments cannot be done without first publishing it in newspapers. The petitioners also said the rate increase violates the Electric Power Industry Reform Act. – VS/JDS, GMA News

Tags: powerratehike, meralco, supremecourt