ILOILO City – MORE Electric and Power Corp.’s (MORE Power) expropriation case against Panay Electric Co. (PECO) was re-raffled again.
Set for retirement, Judge Gloria Madero of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 29 who was supposed to handle the case – the fourth judge, in fact – deemed it proper to let another RTC branch tackle the case, a source told Panay News.
She already started processing her retirement papers, the source added.
The re-raffle was held on Monday. The case landed on RTC Branch 23 of Judge Emerald Kuizon Requina-Contreras.
It was on Jan. 27 when the case was re-raffled to RTC Branch 29 of Madero after Judge Ma. Theresa Gaspar of RTC Branch 33 decided to inhibit citing her close ties to PECO owners.
It was on Jan. 2 when the case was re-raffled to Gaspar’s sala after RTC Branch 35’s Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular inhibited, too.
The other judge who previously heard the case Judge Yvette Go of RTC Branch 37.
MORE Power filed the expropriation case against PECO in March 2019 a month after President Rodrigo Duterte signed its franchise law (Republic Act 11212) as new power distributor in Iloilo City.
PECO’s power distribution franchise expired on Jan. 19, 2019.
MORE Power asked RTC Branch 37 to issue a writ of possession authorizing it to take immediate control, operation, use, and disposition of PECO’s power distribution system assets.
PECO, however, questioned the constitutionality of Republic Act (RA) 11212, specifically the sections on expropriation.
In seeking the expropriation of PECO’s assets, MORE Power cited Section 10 of RA 11212 and Rule 67 Section 2 of the Revised Rules of Court authorizing it to take possession of, exercise control over, and manage and operate all of the power distribution assets in Iloilo City.
The expropriation of PECO’s assets in its favor, according to MORE Power, would allow it to “immediately address and correct poor services, overcharging, frequent brownouts, expensive rates, old and unsafe facilities and practices, and other service deficiencies that this city’s power users and consumers had long suffered.”
MORE Power also petitioned the court to determine the reasonable value of PECO’s power distribution system assets for just compensation, then order the transfer of the ownership of these upon payment of a just compensation.
By MORE Power’s own estimate, PECO’s power distribution system is valued at P481,842,450 – way below PECO’s previous claim that its assets are worth at least P2 billion./PN
