High court votes 9-6 in favor of MORE

SUPREME Court justices voted 9-6 in favor of More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE) in the expropriation case filed by Panay Electric Co. (PECO), which supplied power in Iloilo for decades, sources of The Manila Times said.

The case is in connection with the 2019 ruling of the Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court (RTC) declaring

as illegal and unconstitutional the takeover provisions in the franchise law of MORE.

The Supreme Court thumbed down the motion for reconsideration filed by PECO owned by the Cacho and Lopez families.

The case was resolved 19 days before Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta’s retirement on March 27. Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang wrote the resolution.

Aside from Peralta and Carandang, the other justices who concurred with the ruling were Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Alexander Gesmundo, Estela Perlas Bernabe, Ramon Paul Hernando, Henry Jean Paul Inting, and the newcomers Ricardo Rosario and Jhoseph Lopez.

The dissenters were Justices Marvic Mario Victor Leonen, Amy Lazaro-Javier, Rodil Zalameda, Mario Lopez Edgardo de los Santos and Samuel Gaerlan.

De los Santos and Inting had a change of heart and shifted their votes to the other side. De los Santos earlier voted in favor of MORE, while Inting voted in favor of PECO.

The case became controversial when it reached the high court on the basis of PECO’s opposition to the expropriation proceedings initiated by MORE with the Iloilo City RTC in March 2019.

MORE invoked Sections 10 and 17 of Republic Act (RA) 11212 to expropriate the distribution assets of PECO in exchange for about P500 million in line with its 25-year congressional franchise to distribute electricity in Iloilo City.

PECO’s franchise expired in January 2019. Afterwards, President Rodrigo Duterte signed RA 11212, granting a 25-year distribution franchise in favor of MORE.