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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
A consumer group on Thursday filed charges of
large-scale estafa before the Department of Justice against top
executives of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
The National Association of Electricity
Consumers for Reforms alleged that the utility misappropriated
hundreds of millions of pesos in interests earned from the
consumers’ meter and bill deposits.
The Meralco vice president for corporate
communications, Elpi Cuna, said they will answer the charges as soon
as they receive a copy of the complaint.
Pete Ilagan, the consumer group’s president,
said they filed the complaint against Meralco after discovering that
at least P889 million in interests due Meralco’s non-residential
and commercial customers had been declared by the company as
automatic income for its stockholders as shown in the company’s
2006 financial statements.
“While the Lopezes haggle for interest rates
accruing our deposits, they conveniently hid from the public the
fact that they had already disposed of the money intended to cover
interest payments to us,” he said. “If that’s not bad faith
and double-dealing on their part, I don’t know what is.”
The consumer group earlier filed the case before
the Securities and Exchange and Commission (SEC) but nothing
happened.
The group argued that the conversion was
illegal, constituting 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. And Meralco must pay them back, the group added.
Large-scale estafa is a non-bailable offense
under the Revised Penal Code.
The case stemmed from a 1995 ruling by the
Energy Regulatory Commission that said the interest rate for the
meter and bill deposits of Meralco customers should be 10 percent.
Meralco has been contesting this, insisting that the rate should
only be 6 percent.
In 2003, the Supreme Court ordered Meralco to
refund P30 billion of its income tax paid from 1994 to 2002 that was
passed on to consumers. Then in 2004, the Supreme Court also
disallowed a provisional increase Meralco charged its customers
without public hearings.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez earlier said
Meralco should publicly account for the electric meter deposit fees
of its consumers, amounting to between P4,000 and P6,000 per meter.
The utility demands those deposits before
connecting electricity to a customer’s residence or place of work.
But Gonzalez said he could not recall one
instance where Meralco returned the meter deposit, adding that if
the money is not refunded to customers, then it must be deposited in
banks and earning interests for the owners of the company.
Included in the consumer group’s charge were
Meralco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel Lopez, company
President Jesus Francisco, and the entire members of the firm’s
2006 board of directors—Arthur Defensor Jr., Gregory Domingo,
Octavio Victor Espiritu, Christian Monsod, Federico Puno, Washington
Sycip, Emilio Vicens, Francisco Viray and Cesar Virata.
Also named in the complaint were Daniel Tagaza,
executive vice president and chief financial officer; Rafael Andrada,
first vice president and treasurer; Helen de Guzman, vice president
and corporate auditor and compliance officer; Antonio Valera, vice
president and assistant comptroller and Manolo Fernando, senior
assistant vice president and assistant treasurer.
-- William B. Depasupil
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