CA junks Peco plea anew
Problems are up anew for Panay Electric Company (Peco) as the Iloilo Chapter of the Freedom from Debt Coalition chaired by lawyer Romeo Gerochi scored another victory. This, after the Court of Appeals (CA) denied anew the Motion for Reconsideration filed by Peco to the appellate court.
In a resolution dated May 17, 2006, Associate Justice Roberto Barrios denied the motion for reconsideration relative to its earlier decision in September 16, 2005 denying Peco's Petition for Review with Prayer for Restraining Order and/or Writ of Preliminary Injunction.
"This simply shows that Peco is marching towards the junkyard in its quest for legal remedies to the decisions of both the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Court of Appeals related to the case in the unbundling of its rates with an order that they reduce their generation charges," Ted Aldwin Ong, deputy secretary-general of FDC said when reached for comment.
"We will always be here to ensure that the hard earned gains of the electricity consumers such as the reduced generation charges that we won against PECO are protected from PECO's continued attempt to avert the decisions of ERC and the CA, and again, continue there malpractices by milking us with charges which are not included in their services."
Lawyer Romeo Gerochi, FDC-Iloilo chairperson for his part said the decision may not be controversial but another triumph for the Ilonggo consumers.
"The Court of Appeals simply upheld our earlier victories against PECO and emphasized that our legal arguments were accurate all along," Gerochi said. "We will continue to demand that PECO reduce its generation charges especially that PECO continue to implement the rates covered under the provisional authority issued to them by the ERC in its December 2005 decision."
Such as Gerochi vowed to take legal steps "in the continued defiance of PECO in the implementation of the conditions set by the ERC in its orders that they enter into a contract with Napocor for them to connect to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid where electricity is cheaper than that being provided by PPC."
The CA in denying the PECO appeal averred that "petitioner's (PECO) grounds are merely reiterations of the points and issues raised in the petition which were already fully and definitively passed upon by this Court in the Decision sought to be reconsidered and pointed out that PECO is clearly not entitled to its prayer for an injunctive relief under its defeated state."
"The monopoly of PECO is a clear example that public utilities in private hands are not accountable to the people and not responsive to the needs of the consumers. FDC calls on all electricity consumers to remain vigilant as we continue to seal new victories in our struggle against the privatization of public utilities," concluded the group in a statement.