PCCI opposes government takeover of Meralco

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is against the proposed government takeover of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the conversion of its refund to big consumers to equity in the power firm.

PCCI president Donald Dee warned the business community "should not be misled by these two separate and distinct issues."

In a telephone interview, Dee said Meralco is better off in the hands of the private sector.

"I am not in favor of this. If the shares of Meralco will suffer because of these issues, Napocor (National Power Corp.) will also be affected and so (will) the government," he said.

"Definitely, a government takeover of Meralco is not an option. This will surely send a wrong signal to investors," Dee said.

As to the issue of converting the refund of large industries and commercial customers into Meralco equity, Dee said this was out of the question since most of the business groups had already agreed to be paid in cash for a period of two years.

"We have discussed this a long time ago. We have decided that we should help keep Meralco viable and help in its cash flow problem," Dee said in a telephone interview.

Dee warned that if these issues continue to hound Meralco, not only would businesses be affected, but the country as a whole.

"If Meralco goes under, we will have a bigger problem," he said.

Dee also noted the issue of the P42-billion liability of Meralco to the state-run Napocor should be resolved.

In a related development, Meralco senior assistant vice president and refund management task force head Leonardo Mabale refuted the statement issued by Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) President Jesus Arranza lamenting Meralco’s delay in issuing the refund.

Mabale said Meralco’s refund for Phase IV is in fact ongoing. Based on the timetable set by ERC, Mabale said Meralco is on track in terms of processing the refund.

"Meralco has already completed the refund for its Phase I to III customers. It was the ERC’s intention for Meralco to start refunding to residential customers first before refunding to the commercial and industrial customers," he explained.

Mabale said as much as the Supreme Court’s decision on the refund had a substantial financial impact on Meralco, the company exerted all efforts to implement the refund of about P30 billion as ordered by the Supreme Court and the ERC.