The Iloilo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has ordered MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to return to Panay Electric Company (PECO) the power distribution operation in Iloilo City.

RTC Branch 23 Presiding Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras, during Friday’s (March 6) hearing, reiterated the guidelines in the addendum to the writ of possession (WOP) she issued.

One of the guidelines states that “MORE Power may deploy their personnel to man and oversee the substations to exercise their possession and control of the distribution facilities, but the operation should still be handled by PECO personnel who have the technical expertise.”

“Nagpapasalamat tayo kay Judge Contreras sa paglilinaw niya na dapat talaga PECO parin ang may hawak ng operation ng electric distribution facilities,” lawyer Estrella Elamparo, PECO’s chief legal counsel, said in a media interview after the hearing.

“Nakita naman natin in the course of the hearing kung paano paulit-ulit na sinubukang suwayin ng MORE Power ang nasabing direktiba ng korte,” she added.

Contreras allowed PECO to handle the operation until the next hearing, which is scheduled on March 26.

Last week, court sheriffs implemented the writ granted by the RTC Branch 23 to MORE Power.

Aside from the facilities, MORE Power claimed that it also took over the operation of five power substations in the city.

According to PECO, the “forcible” takeover of its assets as well as the operation was “illegal.”

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.

In an interview with lawyer Hector Teodosio, MORE Power’s legal counsel, he said the court “only said that we will respect the addendum.”

“Sa addendum, naghambal ang court nga ihatag ang operation sa PECO personnel indi sa PECO management. There’s a difference between personnel and management. Ang writ of possession klaro nga ang disposition, control, and possession sang tanan nga properties dapat under MORE Power,” he told reporters.

“Ang tanan nga substations subong [operated by] PECO personnel pero under na sila sa direction, control of MORE Power,” Teodosio added.IMT