‘IT’S COMPLICATED’ New judge inhibits, PECO case re-raffled anew

ILOILO City – Citing her ties both with MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) and Panay Electric Co. (PECO), Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 33 has decided to inhibit from the expropriation case of the two parties.

She was supposed to be the fourth judge to handle the expropriation complaint filed by MORE Power against PECO after RTC Branch 35’s Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular who was handling it inhibited from the case.

It was only on Monday last week, Jan. 20, when the case was re-raffled to Gaspar’s sala.

Yesterday the case was re-raffled again and this time it landed on the sala of Judge Gloria Madero of RTC, Branch 29.

Judge Gaspar’s reasons for inhibiting from the case were the following:

* the chief project engineer of MORE Power was the husband of her civil cases clerk staff

* the owners of PECO (Jose Marie and Sanda Cacho) were close friends of hers; in fact they were members of “Beyond I Do” organization and regularly met at the Cacho house

* Dr. Diane Cacho (wife of Jose Marie Cacho) is her endocrinologist

MORE Power filed the expropriation case against PECO in March 2019 a month after President Rodrigo Duterte singed MORE Power’s franchise law (Republic Act 11212) as new power distributor in Iloilo City.

MORE Power asked RTC, Branch 37 to issue a writ of possession authorizing it to take immediate control, operation, use, and disposition of PECO’s power distribution system assets.

The city’s new power distributor also petitioned the court to determine the reasonable value of PECO’s power distribution system assets for just compensation, then order the transfer of the ownership of these upon payment of a just compensation.

By MORE Power’s own estimate, PECO’s power distribution system is valued at P481,842,450 – way below PECO’s previous claim that its assets are worth at least P2 billion.

In seeking the expropriation of PECO’s assets, MORE Power cited Section 10 of Republic Act 11212 and Rule 67 Section 2 of the Revised Rules of Court authorizing it to take possession of, exercise control over, and manage and operate all of the power distribution assets in Iloilo City.

The expropriation of PECO’s assets in its favor, according to MORE Power, would allow it to “immediately address and correct poor services, overcharging, frequent brownouts, expensive rates, old and unsafe facilities and practices, and other service deficiencies that this city’s power users and consumers had long suffered.”

PECO, on the other hand, questioned the constitutionality of Republic Act 11212, specifically the sections on expropriation.

PECO’s power distribution franchise expired on Jan. 19, 2019.

For his part, Amular offered this explanation for inhibiting from the case: “Notwithstanding that the Presiding Judge performs his duties in accordance with the conscientious dictate of his conscience and the applicable provisions of law, it has come to a point that whatever judgment the Presiding Judge would render in the case would not be accepted by either the plaintiff or the defendant or maybe tainted with bias.”

Gaspar would have been the fourth judge to handle the case following Judge Yvette Go of RTC, Branch 37; Judge Gelvezon as pairing judge when Go went on leave; and Amular.

“Since the court is the least understood as an institution in the discharge of its function, the lack of understanding of the rules and procedures in connection thereto would affect the integrity of our courts to uphold the rule of law,” lamented Amular./PN

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