Mandaluyong RTC stopped from barring Razon firm to operate in Iloilo City

ILOILO CITY — The Court of Appeals (CA) has temporarily stopped the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (RTC) from preventing a power distribution franchise of a Razon-controlled company to operate in Iloilo City.

In an eight-page resolution promulgated on March 28, the CA’s Special Seventeenth Division issued 60-day Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Mandaluyong RTC Branch 209 from implementing a 20-day restraining order issued by the RTC on March 12.

The RTC had issued the TRO preventing More Power, Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission from enforcing Republic Act (RA) 11212.

The law, which took effect on March 6, granted a 25-year franchise to More Power and authorizes the firm to “establish, operate and maintain” an electric power distribution system for consumers in Iloilo City.

The RTC’s TRO also barred the respondents from commencing expropriation proceedings and the takeover of Peco’s distribution assets.

The TRO issued by the CA is in relation to a petition for certiorari filed by More Electric Power Corp. (More Power) against the RTC and Panay Electric Company.

The CA said in its resolution that the TRO was issued to prevent More Power from suffering “grave and irreparable injury” pending the resolution of the petition for review.

The resolution was penned by Associate Justice Elihu Ybanez and concurred with by Associate Justices Nina Antonio-Valenzuela and Ma. Luisa Quijano-Padilla./lzb/ac