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By Jomar Canlas, James Konstantin Galvez and
Angelo S. Samonte, Reporters
The Energy Regulatory Commission admitted that
P10-billion worth of refund has not been returned by the Manila
Electric Co. (Meralco) to consumers, and this includes the money the
company held in trust from consumers who have not made their refund
claims.
Another alleged wrongdoing by the country’s
biggest power distributor was raised also on Thursday by the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Estrella Elamparo, the
government pension fund’s chief legal counsel and spokesman, said
she had uncovered a possible case of forgery committed by Meralco
officials.
Rodolfo Albano, chairman of the Energy
commission, during an interview with The Manila Times, said that
only P20 billion out of the P30 billion in refund to the consumers
returned after the Supreme Court ruled in the case against Meralco.
Albano added that based on their records,
Meralco has refunded 90 percent of residential consumers a total of
P12 billion.
As to the high-loaders, which include industrial
and commercial establishments, the Lopez-owned utility refunded P8
billion and the refund will be finished in three years.
Albano said the P20 billion that has been
refunded by Meralco and the remaining P10 billion included the
unclaimed refund from consumers whose addresses are unknown.
He added that he cannot give the exact figures
on what percentage of the unclaimed refund is now held in trust by
Meralco.
”The unclaimed fund is now held in trust by
Meralco. They cannot give it to the government for the claimants
might appear later on,” Albano said.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte asked
Meralco and the Energy commission to explain the full details of the
refund to the public, taking into account the final ruling of the
Supreme Court.
Villafuerte said the utility has to account for
the refund, particularly how much it has paid back to the consumers.
”I will ask Meralco to explain what happened
to the P30 billion in refund to the consumers after the ruling of
the Supreme Court that Meralco should not charge to the consumers
the income tax they paid to the government,” he added.
The return of the P30 billion was ordered by the
High Court because Meralco included its income taxes in the
computation of electricity rates from 1994 to 2002.
Meralco is due to also refund some P20 billion
in meter deposits that they had collected through the years but was
disallowed by the Supreme Court in 2004.
Neri proposes audit
Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo
Neri said President Gloria Arroyo should form a management audit
body composed of management professors and business experts that
will look into Meralco, National Power Corp. and the National
Transmission Corp. and find ways to bring down power rates in the
country.
“It has to be a management audit and
investigation of their books, and for Meralco to renegotiate their
IPPs [independent power producers],” Neri, the current chairman of
the Commission on Higher Education, added.
He said he is willing to join the committee
created by President Arroyo, but that he is still waiting for the
invitation from the President’s economic team.
Mrs. Arroyo created a committee early this week
to study how to reduce Meralco’s power rates, and to find out if a
takeover of its leadership serves the best interest of the
government and consumers.
She said she wants the committee, composed of
the members of her economic team, to come up with a recommendation
immediately.
“The Lopez group had been denying that they
turned Meralco into a milking cow, but the fact is they own IPPs and
other corporate subsidiaries placing their consumers at a
disadvantageous position,” Neri said.
But Neri added that the committee may encounter
difficulties in dealing with Meralco, particularly with the Lopezes,
because of the latter’s influence.
If the Lopezes refuse to open their books of
accounts as what GSIS President Winston Garcia wants, Neri said,
Garcia can go to court.
“The Lopezes are accountable to the people.
First, Meralco is a publicly-listed company and second, it is a
public utility company . . . Garcia can sue them in court,” he
added.
Garcia said Meralco could reduce power cost by 6
centavos to P3, should the power distributor stop its “abusive
measures.”
Meralco officials, however, said the high power
rates charged by the National Power Corp. are behind the high cost
of power in Metro Manila.
They added that if the government really wants
to lower power rates, it should scrap the expanded Value Added Tax
or E-VAT on fuel and electricity.
Alleged forgery
Elamparo said she had unearthed a possible case
of forgery committed by certain Meralco officials. This case, she
added, bolsters the GSIS’ claims that the power utility has been
employing dirty tricks to foil the government’s bid to take
control of Meralco.
In a statement, Elamparo claimed that Meralco
officers had forged the signatures of its employees in a paid
advertisement published in various newspapers. The ad denounced
Garcia for his expose on the Lopez family’s alleged mismanagement
of the power utility.
“They cut the signatures of their employees
from their timecards and pasted them in the advertisement. And if
they were doing this, it is not unimaginable that they were also
faking the signatures of the shareholders,” she said.
On Tuesday, Garcia revealed that one week before
Meralco’s annual stockholders meeting, the Lopezes continued to
solicit proxies even after the deadline for getting votes lapsed
last Saturday. Apparently, this move was done to reduce
representatives of government financial institutions (GFIs) in the
Meralco board from four to three.
The stockholders meeting has been set for May
27.
Garcia said the Lopez management had refused to
provide the GSIS with a list of all proxies in order to validate
them, and determine how many were obtained by the two warring sides.
He added that he was surprised that Meralco’s
acting corporate secretary, former Supreme Court Justice Jose Vitug,
would deny the basic rights of a director and shareholder of the
company to get a peek at the proxies list.
Garcia said that having one seat less than the
GFI’s four of 11 board seats would give the Lopezes “full
control” of Meralco.
“We smell something fishy is about to happen
in the stockholders’ meeting,” he added.
Garcia was hoping that the GFIs would gain
majority of the board with four directors. Assuming that two
independent directors will join the side of the government, that
would give them six seats in the 11-seat Meralco board.
“Having four directors is really crucial to
ensure consumer activism in the boardroom,” he said.
Garcia added that Meralco Chairman Manuel Lopez,
his children and other relatives have been talking with brokers to
get their proxy votes.
“Why are they afraid of the GFIs getting their
rightful share of the Meralco board? Why are they doing all these
dirty tricks?” he asked.
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