Makabayan bloc asks Supreme Court to declare Meralco bill deposit illegal

The House of Representatives' Makabayan bloc and a senatorial candidate asked the Supreme Court to strike down as illegal the electric bill deposit Meralco collects from consumers.

In a petition filed Tuesday, lawmakers and former Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares, who is running for the Senate, urged the justices to permanently prohibit Meralco and other distribution utilities from imposing and collecting bill deposits.

They particularly sought the declaration as illegal and void of the bill deposit provisions in the Energy Regulatory Commission's Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers and Resolution No. 28, series of 2010.

The bill deposit is an amount required to guarantee customers' payment of electric bills, according to Meralco. The company says the amount is equivalent to a customer's estimated billing for a month.

The petitioners argued that bill deposit is neither defined nor allowed by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, adding that a guarantee for bill payment imposed on the market is baseless and illegal "since payment of bills is already certain under ERC and Meralco's policy and protocols on non-payment of monthly bills."

"The imposition of a bill deposit is inconsistent with the promotion of consumer interest and of Meralco's duty under its franchise," the petition stated.

They also said bill deposit is illegal as it is co-mingled with Meralco's general fund and used for investments in financial instruments and operations-related expenses, among other purposes.

The lawmakers likewise want the ERC ordered to implement a refund of bill deposits, amounting to what they said was at least P29 billion, and pay consumers the interest earned by their deposits.

They alleged Meralco had reduced the interest rate to .25 percent a year from the original 10 percent, allowing the company to "profit tremendously from the bill deposit, with a return of at least 14.97 percent."

Apart from Colmenares, Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate, Ariel Casilao, Emmi De Jesus, Arlene Brosas, Antonio Tinio, France Castro, Sarah Jane Elago and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Secretary General Renato Reyes, Jr. filed the petition.

Named respondents were the ERC, Meralco, and the Commission on Audit (COA).

The petitioners also asked the Court to order the COA to audit all the bill deposits collected, the interest Meralco earned and the amounts that have been and have not been refunded, and publish a report on the status of bill deposits collected by distribution companies nationwide. —LDF, GMA News