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By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
suffered an apparent setback in its bid for the Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco) to explain why it ignored a cease-and-desist order issued
by the regulator.
Lawyers for Meralco on Friday said the SEC
lacked jurisdiction over the power distributor’s refusal on May 27
to heed the cease-and-desist order. They cited the transfer to the
regular courts of quasi-judicial functions of the SEC.
Furthermore, the lawyers said, three top
executives of Meralco and four company directors—Felipe Alfonso,
Elpidio Ibañez, Christian Monsod and Francis Giles-Puno—did not
receive summonses from the regulator for them to show up at the
hearing. Since the seven Meralco officials had not been sent the
summonses, they added, the hearing was inappropriate. Besides, the
utility’s lawyer said, their clients not having personally
received the cease-and-desist order also heightened the government
regulator’s lack of jurisdiction over the matter.
A SEC panel that had been formed to conduct the
hearing, however, pushed through with its fact-finding Friday on a
show-cause order that the government regulator issued after the
Lopez-owned utility rejected the cease-and-desist order.
The hearing was presided by the panel chairman,
Gerardo del Rosario, and SEC lawyers Celso Virgilio Ylagan and
Alexis Cervantes. Del Rosario is with the regulator’s company
registration and monitoring department, Ylagan from the market
regulation and non-traditional securities department and Cervantes
from the instruments department.
The show-cause order was addressed to Meralco
Chairman Manuel Lopez, President Jesus Francisco and acting
Corporate Secretary Anthony Rosete. They had been given until noon
on Friday to explain why the power distributor’s management defied
the SEC’s first order.
Del Rosario said a hearing on the
cease-and-desist order has been set for next week.
The GSIS lawyers led by the state pension
fund’s chief legal counsel, Estrella Elamparo, had pushed for the
continuation of the hearing on this order. She said the respondents
should be responsible enough to get hold of the copies of the order
by themselves. Elamparo also moved for the inclusion of Alfonso,
Monsod, Ibañez and Giles-Puno in the hearing on the show-cause
order since she said they were also alleged parties to the defiance
of the first order.
The SEC panel told both parties to submit their
memorandum on the matter in three days.
During the hearing, members of the media learned
that the Court of Appeals has issued a temporary restraining order,
which prohibited the SEC and the GSIS from implementing the
cease-and-desist order.
“We have not received a copy [of the
restraining order], and we have not been informed that a TRO has
indeed been issued,” said Miguel Damaso, legal counsel of Meralco
President Francisco.
Elamparo said she was surprised that the SEC
hearing was adjourned at 3 p.m.
“We do not know if the reason [for the
adjournment was a TRO being issued] . . . There was no expectation
[from us] that the hearing will be stopped. There must be proper
[servicing] of a TRO,” she added.
The issuance of the restraining order, Elamparo
said, “sends a wrong signal not just to corporations but also to
the general public . . . that anybody [can] defy the orders of a
duly constituted body [such as the SEC].”
At 3:45 p.m., the government regulator’s
secretary, Gerard Lukban, received in his office a notice on the
resolution from the Court of Appeals granting Meralco the temporary
restraining order and a notice on the dates of hearing from the
appellate court.
“We cannot do anything but abide by this
[court ruling],” Lukban said.
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