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Thursday, May 29, 2008
Group files syndicated estafa vs Meralco officer, directors
MANILA -- The advocacy group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore), Inc. filed a syndicated estafa case against the officers and Board of Directors of Meralco before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly defrauding its consumers about P889 million in interest earnings out of their meter and bills deposits.
According to Nasecore president Pete Ilagan, the 2006 Meralco board declared as automatic income for its stockholders the P889 million in interests due by the power firm's non-residential and commercial customers.
The case stemmed from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ruling in 1995 that interest rate for the meter and bill deposits for Meralco consumers should be at 10 percent. Meralco has contested that it should only be six percent.
The ERC ruled that the 10 percent meter and bill deposits of Meralco consumers now amounting to P21 billion should be returned as prescribed.
In 2006, Meralco transferred the four percent amounting to P899 million to its interest and other account.
Nasecore said the P21 billion, which represents 10-percent of the whole meter and bill deposits, should remain in trust while the ERC has not yet decided on how to compute the interests. The amount of P889 million was just four percent of the P21 billion reclassified as interest allegedly defrauded by Meralco.
It claimed that the power firm clearly misappropriated the funds since it only allotted six percent payment per consumer instead of 10-percent while the remaining four percent has been reclassified to interest and other incomes.
Nasecore said such conversion was illegal and constitutes large-scale estafa because the money is in the nature of a fund that should have been held in trust by Meralco for its consumers because it must be paid back to them. (Sunnex) |
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