By Joel R. San Juan - March 4, 2020
THE camp of embattled Panay Electric
Co. (Peco) on Tuesday said it would exhaust all legal remedies to regain
control of the power distribution business in Iloilo City that has been taken
over by Razon-led More Electric Power Corp. (MORE) by virtue of a court order.
At a press briefing, Peco’s legal
counsel Estrella Elamparo told Justice reporters that the company has
filed a supplemental motion before the Court of Appeals seeking the issuance of
a status quo ante order to compel MORE to return to it the power distribution
operation in Iloilo.
“We already filed in the Court of
Appeals last Thursday a petition for certiorari questioning the order of the
most recent judge, the order granting writ. Today we filed a supplemental
petition and in that supplemental petition we asked that the status quo ante be
maintained. When we say status quo ante, that is the last…status before the
controversy erupted and that was when Peco was in complete possession still,”
Elamparo said.
In its petition for certiorari, Peco
prayed for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) to enjoin the
implementation of the writ of possession issued by Ilolilo City Regional Trial
Court (RTC) Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras last Wednesday against its
distribution assets.
Peco sought the issuance of a TRO
before the CA in Cebu a day after Contreras issued the writ of
possession.
However, the camp of MORE
immediately went to Peco’s facility last Friday by virtue of the court’s writ
of possession and took over its operations.
This prompted Peco to file a
supplemental petition before the CA seeking the issuance of a status quo ante
order.
Despite MORE’s takeover of the power
distribution business in the province, Elamparo said Peco is still confident
that the Supreme Court, where the issue on the constitutionality of Republic
Act 11212 is pending.
Signed on February 14, 2019, by
President Duterte, that law grants MORE a 15-year congressional franchise to
distribute power in Iloilo City.
Sections 10 and 17 of RA 11212
granted MORE, as the new distribution utility in Iloilo City the powers of
eminent domain and the power to expropriate any asset, including existing
distribution assets, in the city.
MORE Power said it is ready to
submit to the Iloilo City RTC its program for the complete takeover of the
distribution facilities in the city, including the timelines on the transition
period, accounting, turnover of records like the list of consumers, and
documents relevant to the operation of the distribution system such as the
inventory of personal properties under and inventory of real properties already
under the possession of MORE Power.
MORE started the process of taking
over Peco’s electricity distribution facilities after securing the 15-year
franchise from Congress in 2019 following the expiration of Peco’s franchise
on January 19, 2019.
MORE filed the expropriation case
against Peco’s distribution assets after securing its congressional franchise.
“Definitely, it is not yet over. We
are taking all the remedies that we could,” Elamparo said as she assailed what
she called MORE’s hasty implementation of the court’s writ of possession, being
a preemptive action.
“If you try to preempt a TRO, it is
bad faith. What should happen is that the situation should be reverted before
their act of preempting happened,” Elamparo explained.
Elamparo maintained that the
takeover of Peco’s distribution assets by MORE is illegal, considering that
there is still a pending issue before the SC on the constitutionality of
the expropriation of its assets by MORE.
In December last year, the
SC issued a TRO to stop enforcement of a July 1, 2019, order of the
Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Mandaluyong City that ruled as
unconstitutional a provision in the franchise law given to MORE that
allowed the expropriation of assets, equipment and facilities of Peco.
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