Sunday, July 13, 2008 Anti-graft crusader wants refund from power firms
THE founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) yesterday said they will launch in Cebu the Refund Movement to pressure power distribution utilities and cooperatives to refund consumers of payments illegally collected from them.
VACC Chairman Dante Jimenez said they have filed a case against Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) before the Manila Regional Trial Court for refund of the amount collected from consumers in the form of systems loss.
The systems loss includes tax, power losses and others, which are on top of the amount of power consumed by the electricity users.
“It is now time that all power consumers in the country opposed this illegal activity of the power distributors and cooperatives. They are fooling us. Why should we pay an amount which we did not consume? That is unconstitutional,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez said he come to Cebu to discuss with Vicente “Tet” Gambito, their coordinator in the Visayas, the Refund Movement launched in Manila against Meralco, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and National Power Corporation (Napocor).
Consumers’ interests
Gambito is a member of the Consumer Complaints Center Inc., a private entity registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to protect the interest of the consumers.
“As you can see, the objective is to refund the consumers of what we believe are illegitimate charges or systems loss and other charges that we feel are illegal. We file a class suit against Meralco, ERC and Napocor,” Jimenez said in a press conference.
Jimenez believed that if given due course by the court, they will also file the same suit against other power distribution utilities and cooperatives in the country.
In Cebu, the distribution utilities are the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) and Mactan Electric Co. (Meco), while the electric cooperatives are the Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) and the Bantayan Electric Cooperative (Banelco).
Jimenez said that like Meralco, they are also charging systems loss.
“Our move now will not only benefit the power consumers in Metro Manila but also in the whole country,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez said the undue charges are a violation of the rights of the people.
“Imagine, the government collects taxes from them but they pass it on to the consumers,” Jimenez said. (EOB)
