Bayan Muna urges SC to reconsider ruling upholding 2013 ERC order

Progressive party-list groups on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling that upheld an Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order allowing Meralco to implement a power rate hike amounting to P22 billion.

In its 37-page motion for reconsideration, the Makabayan bloc argued that the Supreme Court committed reversible error when it upheld that the ERC did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it allowed Meralco to pass the cost to its consumers.

“Wherefore, in view of the foregoing, petitioners… most respectfully pray that the Honorable Court reverse its August 3, 2021 decision and instead grant the petition declaring the ERC to have acted in grave abuse and discretion in its hasty approval of the Meralco letter,” the bloc said.

Former House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate said the decision will add a P10 per kilowatt hour increase to the present power rate of households.

“That means more than double the electricity bills of our already crisis-battered and overburdened consumers," he said in a statement.

"While the decision, as it is now, said the ERC did not abuse its powers even when it wantonly approved with haste the questioned increase in 2013, we continue to assert otherwise," he added.

Zarate stressed there is a failure of regulation and that consumers do not feel that their interests are protected and promoted.

“With the current dispensation, the consumers’ welfare is not only at the mercy of the power players but also at the mercy of how well (or badly) the ERC would exercise its vast powers," he said.

The congressman also questioned why it should be the consumers who will bear the burden of the rate hike.

“Bakit ang mamamayan ang pinaparusahan samantalang ang mga generation companies ang pumalpak at ang ERC ang di gumawa sa kanyang tungkulin. Hindi ba sila dapat ang parusahan at hindi ang mamamayan na lubog na nga sa hirap at taas ng bilihin?" he said.

(Why should the public be punished when generation companies committed mistakes and the ERC did not do its job. Shouldn't they be the ones punished and not the public who is facing difficulty with high prices?)—AOL, GMA News