Sun.Star Breaking News

MANILA — Various non-government organizations (NGOs) belonging to the Refund Energy Fees Unjustly Debited (Refund) on Wednesday asked the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) to order the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to refund the P13 billion of “unjust” fees levied on electric consumers.

In a class suit lodged before the Makati RTC, the group whose members mostly belong to Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption (Vacc) also included in their complaint the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Power Corporation (Napocor) whom they accused of “collusion and indispensable cooperation” in the pricing, assessment and collection of the monthly electricity bills including the much-maligned system losses.

“This is the first of its kind, an unprecedented class action suit. If we succeed in this case, all electric users will get a refund,” said Leonard de Vera, one of the group’s lawyers.

The plaintiffs paid P4,000 as filing fee for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) or injunction, said de Vera, adding that they are leaving it to the court to determine how much they would pay as filing fee for the class suit once it accounted for all the records of the corporate books of the utility firm.

In filing the case, de Vera said the court should immediately issue a TRO or injunction on Meralco’s imposition of the systems loss charges including the imposition of the value-added tax, stop the continued collection of meter deposits and pass-on charges to consumers and subscribers of all expenses incurred in Meralco’s pension fund, and the recent application for electricity rate increase.

The group is also asking the court to order the “opening of the corporate books of Meralco and Napocor, compel the ERC and Napocor to provide copies of all documents related to power rate increases, as well as costs of electricity sold to Meralco, and conduct audit and accounting procedures on all charges being billed by Meralco to all its subscribers and consumers. (AH/Sunnex)

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