MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) will resolve the dispute between new Iloilo City power distributor MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) and previous distributor Panay Electric Co. (PECO) with objectivity and independence, stressed its spokesperson Brian Hosaka.
Hosaka dismissed a party-list lawmaker’s insinuation that the high court was biased in favor of MORE Power.
The lawmaker was Abang Lingkod party-list’s Cong. Joseph Stephen Paduano who, on Aug. 22, 2019 filed House Bill No. 4101 which had sought to grant a 25-year franchise to PECO. The House committee on legislative franchise, however, rejected it, pointing out that a franchise was already granted to MORE Power on Feb. 14, 2019.
PECO’s franchise expired on Jan. 19, 2019.
“Decisions of the Supreme Court are always founded on facts, applicable laws, and current jurisprudence,” said Hosaka.
He also pointed out that the Supreme Court is composed of 15 Justices and its actions “are based on the majority vote of the members en banc or of a division.”
“That is how the Supreme Court acts as mandated by our Constitution, and that is why it will always be objective and independent,” said Hosaka.
Friday last week, MORE Power took over PECO’s five substations armed with a Writ of Possession from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 in Iloilo City.
“Let us wait for the final resolution,” Hosaka said.
PECO has questioned the constitutionality of MORE Power’s franchise.
In a statement on Sunday, Paduano urged President Rodrigo Duterte to intervene in the row between MORE Power and PECO.
Four judges already inhibited themselves from the case, namely Yvette Go (RTC, Branch 37), Ma. Theresa Gaspar (RTC, Branch 33), Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular (RTC, Branch 35), and Gloria Madero (RTC, Branch 29).
The Supreme Court earlier turned down PECO’s petition to transfer the expropriation case filed by MORE Power against it to a court outside Iloilo City.
The High Court said PECO “failed to prove that a miscarriage of justice would arise in the event that the subject case continues to be heard in the RTC of Iloilo City.”/PN