MANILA, Philippines -- The Manila Electric Co. on Wednesday sought the dismissal of a class suit filed by a consumer group against the power distributor, the National Power Corp., and the Energy Regulatory Commission, which demanded a refund of up to P13 billion in “illegal” electricity charges.

Meralco counsel Jose Ronald Valles told Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Perpetua Atal-Paño that the court had no jurisdiction over the case, citing sections of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and Batas Pambansa.

Wednesday was the first hearing of the suit filed by the newly formed group called “Refund,” led by lawyer Leonard de Vera of the Equal Justice for All Movement, and Dante Jimenez of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.

Refund, which stands for Refund Energy Fees Unjustly Debited, asked the court to order the refund of purported illegal charges on Meralco subscribers, and to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction on further increases in electricity rates.

Audit of books

It also sought an audit of the corporate books of Meralco and Napocor to account for all charges billed to subscribers.

In its complaint, Refund said that Meralco was passing on to consumers “so-called systems losses, consumer deposits, value added taxes, ghost deliveries of electricity from its own independent power producer, First Gas, and the newly uncovered passing on to consumers of Meralco’s pension fund for its officers and employees surreptitiously tucked into their electric bills.”

In an order made in open court, Paño directed the lawyers of the defendants to put their arguments in writing within five days, and gave the complainants 15 days to file their comment.

De Vera had wanted to be immediately put on the witness stand to explain the suit but lawyers of the defendants pointed out that under the law, questions disputing electricity rates should be filed before the ERC, the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

ERC lawyer Francis Juan also said the ERC was exercising its quasi-judicial function when approving or rejecting applications for power rate increases, thus, putting ERC and the court at a “co-equal” level.

Restraining EPIRA

Another Meralco lawyer, Anthony Rosete, said restraining the ERC from approving power rate hikes would amount to restraining EPIRA, which a regional trial court had no mandate to do.

De Vera said the Constitution does not specify which court of law should intervene in cases of grave abuse of discretion, arguing that taking their case to the Supreme Court would take too much time.

But Paño said the question of whether the court exercised jurisdiction over ERC needed to be resolved first before any presentation of evidence could be made.

Also on Wednesday, the VACC started the registration of Meralco subscribers who want to join the class suit with some 300 residents of Barangay Olympia signing up at the village hall.