Business World Online
Posted on January 16, 2014 11:33:39 PM
A RULE allowing automatic power rate adjustments will be among the issues to be tackled next week as the Supreme Court hears a case against a hefty increase sought by Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
The high court, in a six-page advisory issued last Wednesday, defined the limits of presentations during Tuesday’s oral arguments to the automatic adjustments -- allowed under the implementing rules of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) -- plus the following:
• if the petitioners had availed of the proper remedy;
• if the case and issues raised were “justiciable”;
• if the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had abused its powers;
• if the ERC had surrendered its regulatory functions in allowing the automatic increases;
• if parts of the EPIRA were unconstitutional in declaring power generation and supply as not public utilities, and their charges beyond the ERC’s ambit;
• if a 60-day restraining orders should be lifted; and
• if the petitioners’ call for relief was warranted.
Party-list legislators and consumer groups are questioning a P4.15 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) rate hike that Meralco was supposed to have started implementing last December.
The utility and the ERC claim the adjustment is allowed by law. Also expected to present their sides next week are the Energy department and newly impleaded power generators.
The petitioners, the Energy department and the ERC, and intervenors have been allotted 30 minutes each, while Meralco and additional respondents have been granted 40 minutes each during the oral arguments, which are scheduled to start at two in the afternoon.
The court also ordered Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, ERC Chairman Zenaida G. Cruz-Ducut and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. President Melinda L. Ocampo to attend.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld. source
• if the petitioners had availed of the proper remedy;
• if the case and issues raised were “justiciable”;
• if the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had abused its powers;
• if the ERC had surrendered its regulatory functions in allowing the automatic increases;
• if parts of the EPIRA were unconstitutional in declaring power generation and supply as not public utilities, and their charges beyond the ERC’s ambit;
• if a 60-day restraining orders should be lifted; and
• if the petitioners’ call for relief was warranted.
Party-list legislators and consumer groups are questioning a P4.15 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) rate hike that Meralco was supposed to have started implementing last December.
The utility and the ERC claim the adjustment is allowed by law. Also expected to present their sides next week are the Energy department and newly impleaded power generators.
The petitioners, the Energy department and the ERC, and intervenors have been allotted 30 minutes each, while Meralco and additional respondents have been granted 40 minutes each during the oral arguments, which are scheduled to start at two in the afternoon.
The court also ordered Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, ERC Chairman Zenaida G. Cruz-Ducut and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. President Melinda L. Ocampo to attend.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld. source
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