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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
At least 10 groups on Monday
filed charges of plunder against officials of the Manila Electric
Co. (Meralco) and against former officials of the government’s
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
They then sought the help of the
Office of the Ombudsman in suspending incumbent officials of the
regulatory commission and the National Power Corp. (Napocor),
another state-run agency, for alleged conspiracy with the top guns
of the Lopez-owned utility.
The groups claimed that the
Meralco officials have caused, in particular, consumers to pay for
system losses resulting from pilfered electricity. They said Meralco,
the country’s biggest power distributor, had connived with the two
government agencies to pull off the questionable billing.
The complainants filed charges of
violation of Republic Act 7080, or the Anti-Plunder Law, along with
frauds and illegal exactions, economic sabotage, large-scale estafa
and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against
six Meralco officials: Chairman Manuel Lopez, Lopez Group Chairman
Oscar Lopez, Director Eugenio Lopez 3rd, Meralco President Jesus
Francisco, Senior Vice President Ireneo Acuna and Treasurer Rafael
Andrada.
They also charged with the same
alleged offenses the five former officials of the regulatory
commission: Chairman Fe Barin and Commissioners Oliver Butalid,
Jesus Alcordo, Raul Tan and Alejandro Barin. The petitioners also
filed administrative charges against the five officials for alleged
violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public
Officials and Employees.
The complainants asked the
Ombudsman to sack incumbent Chairman Rodolfo Albano Jr. of the
regulatory commission and the agency’s Commissioners Mary Anne
Colayco, Carlos Alindada and Leticia Ibay; and Napocor President
Cyril del Callar.
The group members pointed out
that the suspension will ensure that the respondents will not use
their position in the course of an investigation of the allegations.
According to the petitioners, the
six Meralco officials, with the former officials of the regulatory
commission conspiring with them, received for their own personal and
business benefit the amount of P30 billion in illegally collected
charges for system losses over three-and-a-half years.
The P30 billion, they said, was
public money but which the utility’s executives collected “to
the damage and prejudice of the government and the Meralco
customers/consumers.”
The petitioners also questioned
the return of Meralco and ABS-CBN radio and television network to
the “Lopez clan without any single centavo paid, and without the
consuming public knowing the terms and conditions for said
turnover.” Then-President Corazon Aquino gave the utility and the
network back to the Lopezes immediately after she took over power
from strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
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