Ombudsman suspends 4 ERC commissioners anew

MANILA, Philippines — The four Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) officials earlier suspended for favoring a power utility firm have been slapped with another suspension order by the Office of the Ombudsman.

ERC commissioners Alfredo Non, Gloria Victoria Yap-Taruc, Josefina Patricia Asirit and Geronimo Sta. Ana, who were able to return to their posts after securing a temporary restraining order from the Court of Appeals (CA) on the one-year suspension order earlier this year, will now have to again vacate their post.

The Ombudsman ordered their suspension without pay for three months after finding them guilty of simple neglect of duty, this time in connection with a complaint filed by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc.

Nasecore filed the administrative case against the four commissioners for tolerating the misuse of bill deposits by allowing its commingling with the capital or operation cost of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), contrary to the purpose for which the BD was established – as a guarantee for the payment of bills.

In its ruling furnished to the Department of Justice last week, the ombudsman found that the four ERC commissioners continuously refrained from strictly implementing rules defining the nature of BDs as “mere guarantee in payment of bills” which must be returned upon termination of the distribution utility’s service.

The anti-graft office also cited the ERC officials’ failure to issue rules or policies such as the creation of a separate escrow account to avoid commingling of BDs with the capital or operational expenses of Meralco or any DU.

“They tolerated the use of BDs as Meralco’s capital without the benefit of a reasonable return of interest to accrue yearly to consumers,” read the order dated May 18.

The ombudsman ruled on the complaint for syndicated estafa and grave misconduct against the ERC commissioners as well as Meralco executives over the alleged unauthorized use and utilization of consumers’ BDs by the DUs, the discriminatory fixing of interests by the ERC, and the non-crediting by Meralco of the interests earned by the bill deposits in favor of consumers.

Although the criminal charge was dismissed for insufficiency of evidence, the ombudsman referred to the Commission on Audit (COA) the conduct of an audit on the BDs collected by Meralco from the public consumers.

“It is apt to refer to the COA the matter of determining the total amount of BDs collected by DUs particularly Meralco, the appropriate fixing of rates and the supposed interest earned by such BDs starting the year the same were collected until the present time so as to properly credit such earning in favor of the public consumers – more so, since Meralco failed to show that it credited yearly interest to the bills of the registered customers,” the ombudsman explained in its order.

Nasecore welcomed the ombudsman’s order, saying it is long overdue justice for the consumers against ERC’s regulatory failure.

It stressed that the latest decision clearly showed that the commissioners are remiss in exercising ERC’s mandate of protecting the interest of the electricity consuming public resulting in regulatory failure.

This is the second time the Ombudsman has ordered the suspension of the same ERC commissioners.

The first was a one-year suspension order issued in December last year “for conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service aggravated by simple misconduct and simple neglect of duty” for allegedly excluding Meralco and other firms from competitive selection process (CSP) meant to “elicit the best price” for consumers.

They were also charged with violation of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) before the Sandiganbayan.

 The case stemmed from allegations that the ERC officials gave due preference to Meralco and its power supply agreements with affiliated power generation companies by extending the deadline for compliance of the competitive selective process. – Edu Punay