Panay Electric Company (PECO), the embattled power distributor in Iloilo City, has decided to file charges against those who “participated” in the “illegal” execution of the writ of possession (WOP).

“We will be filing administrative, criminal, and, if necessary, civil cases against everybody who participated in any way in the implementation of the WOP,” lawyer Estrella Elamparo, chief legal counsel of PECO, said in a press conference on Feb. 29.

The WOP issued by Presiding Judge Emerald K. Requina-Contreras of the Iloilo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 was implemented by sheriffs on Feb. 28.

In an order dated Feb. 20, Contreras, the third judge to handle the expropriation case filed by MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), reiterated the grant of a WOP to the plaintiff.

MORE Power, a firm owned by ports and casino tycoon Enrique Razon Jr., claimed that it “successfully” took over the distribution assets of PECO.

But Elamparo said the takeover was accomplished in a “criminal manner.” 

“What we witnessed is unprecedented, irregular and illegal,” she lamented.

Elamparo said Contreras and the sheriffs “preempted” the Supreme Court (SC) and Court of Appeals (CA).

“There is still a pending SC case involving the issue of constitutionality of the expropriation proceedings. If you would recall, we already got a judgement from the Mandaluyong RTC declaring the exproriation provisions of RA 11212 unconstitutional. And it was MORE Power who bought the case to the SC on appeal,” she explained.

“It also preempted the CA bacause on Thursday (Feb. 27), we filed a petition before the appellate court seeking a temporary restraing order (TRO) to prevent the implementation of the order,” the lawyer added.

Elamparo stressed that “under our rules of court, no action should be taken within a period of 10 days.”

“That grace period was totally disregarded by the RTC of Iloilo, by Judge Contreras, by the sheriffs,” she said.

Today, March 2, PECO will file two motions before the Iloilo City RTC. 

The motions, according Elamparo, seek to inhibit Contreras from continuing to handle the case, and to suspend the proceedings “because of the pending petitions before the CA and SC.”

“We will not hesitate to exhaust all legal remedies. We are optimistic that all these can still be undone once a proper ruling from a proper court is issued,” she said.

Republic Act (RA) 11212, which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in Feb. last year, grants MORE Power a 25-year franchise to operate a power distribution utility in Iloilo City. 

The law also allows MORE Power to acquire the distribution assets of PECO whose franchise expired in Jan. 2019.

Section 10 of RA 11212 authorizes MORE Power to exercise the power of eminent domain and acquire such private property as is actually necessary for the realization of the purpose for which the franchise is granted.

Section 17 states the power of MORE Power, as grantee, to effectively acquire power distribution assets. The distribution assets that exist within the franchise area could only refer to those of PECO.

These provisions, however, were declared “unconstitutional” by the Mandaluyong RTC.

MORE Power challenged the ruling of the lower court before the SC.IMT