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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Department of Justice (DOJ)
is being swamped with calls to speed up the preliminary
investigation of fraud charges filed against top executives of the
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
In a letter to Justice Secretary
Raul Gonzalez, Rep. Amado Bagatsing of Manila said Meralco must be
made accountable for its questionable conversion into outright
income of some P889 million in interests earned from meter and bill
deposits from consumers.
“Enough is enough,”
Bagatsing said. “The DOJ should at least stop these Meralco
officials from enjoying the fruits of their loot.”
The National Association of
Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. had earlier filed a
large-scale estafa complaint against Meralco chair Manolo
Lopez, president Jesus Francisco and all the members of the firm’s
2006 board.
Meralco, for its part, has welcomed
the charges, saying that it would give them the opportunity to
explain their side in court.
Consumer association
president Pete Ilagan said the misdeed can be clearly seen from the
fine prints of Meralco’s 2006 financial statement.
The consumer association claimed
that the conversion was illegal and constitutes large-scale estafa,
because the money is in the nature of a fund that should have been
held in trust by Meralco for its consumers.
Bagatsing warned of the
consequences of not stopping the alleged thievery of Meralco
officials.
“Looters beget looters.
We will be breeding a nation of power thieves, because people know
they have been fooled, robbed and betrayed, and justice is nowhere
in sight. They would take law into their own hands,” he said.
Poor are mostly affected
Likewise, the National Labor
Union also said the country’s judicial system must show its
courage and dedication to the rule of law by “throwing the book”
at the Lopezes “for their open defiance of the rule of law.”
It said that the issue is
between the four million consumers of Meralco electricity who have
been cheated for years by the company for overbilling, not just for
a few centavos, but for millions.
“Meralco is actually
snatching the bread, rice and fish from the mouths of the children
and families of the poor. Many families are spending less on food
and education because they are forced to pay excessive charges for
their electric consumption, otherwise their electricity would be cut
off,” the labor group said.
The Energy Regulatory Commission
(ERC) has ordered Meralco to refund the bill and meter deposits,
along with 10-percent in interest. However, Meralco had been trying
to reduce the interest rate to 6 percent.
“The estafa was committed when
the 4-percent difference between the ERC-mandated 10 percent and
Meralco’s 6 percent—amounting to P889 million—was transferred
by Meralco to its ‘income’ accounts from its customer deposit
accounts,” the consumer association said.
They claimed the action had
the effect of Meralco taking the P889 million for distribution to
its shareholders, when the money should be made part of the some
P21.4-billion meter and bills deposit refund of its customers.
The Supreme Court ordered
Meralco in 2003 to refund P30 billion which it passed on to
consumers from 1994 to 2002, while in 2004 the High Court disallowed
a provisional increase that Meralco wanted charged to its customers
without public hearings.
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