S.C. DECISION STICKS: For planning purposes, we can assume that the Supreme Court will not reverse its ruling that the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) must refund the excess billings it has collected from consumers since 1994 estimated at P28 billion.

Everything considered, the likelihood is that the decision handed down via the unanimous vote of the five justices in the tribunal’s Third Division will stick.

While Meralco’s lawyers are composing a motion for reconsideration, its finance officers must draw up various modes of repayment that can satisfy the court’s decision while inflicting the least damage to the company and the country.

With Meralco having failed to set aside enough money to cover a possible Supreme Court decision for a refund, the sudden removal of P28 million from its cash flow may indeed be disastrous for the company and, by domino effect, the economy.

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PROPER APPROACH: We consumers hail the landmark decision. But in victory, it would be a mistake for us to gloat over it. It would also be extreme bad taste for politicians to now flood media with press releases riding on the issues, blah-blah….

We think the proper attitude would be to see how all affected sectors could contribute to making the massive repayment less disruptive.

We waited eight years for this rollback of electricity rates and the refund of excess payments. For most consumers, waiting for another eight or 18 months for a staggered refund or some other mode of repayment won’t hurt.

Requiring Meralco to write out and distribute all the checks corresponding to each consumer’s share in the refund could bleed the power firm to death. That cruel and counter-productive option could harm the economy.

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MODES OF REPAYMENT: Against the extreme option of full and immediate cash refund, these are some of the suggested modes of repayment that could help minimize the damage all around:

1. Credit the refund to future electricity bills spaced over a reasonable period, as mentioned in the court ruling. While experiencing reduced rates (per ruling of the then Energy Regulatory Board and sustained by the Supreme Court), consumers also will get their refund over time.

The staggered credit-refund will be more manageable than a one-time full repayment. Applying it to future bills will involve only accounting entries and will not require cash-out. Saddled with loans totaling some P31-billion, Meralco must raise P4.8 billion for principal payments in 2003.

2. Install a mechanism for converting the refund into shares of non-voting stock. The shares would earn dividends, when such are declared. Many consumers won’t mind not being able to vote the shares, because anyway the government, as the biggest stockholder at 24 percent, sort of represents consumers already.
3. Combine various modes. For instance, Meralco could make an initial partial payment and credit the balance to future payment of electricity bills.

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CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE: Many politicians and publicity seekers are expected to try riding on the issue that benefits some 3.1 million consumers in the Meralco franchise area.

But for the record, the petitioners who questioned the Court of Appeals’ stopping the ERB from reducing Meralco rate increases and ordering a refund were the ERB (now a Commission) and the Lawyers Against Monopoly and Poverty led by lawyer Ceferino Padua and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

The decision rebuffing the appeals court was penned by Associate Justice Reynato S. Puno. The others in the Third Division are Associate Justices Artemio Panganiban, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Renato Corona and Conchita Carpio-Morales.

Many people are asking if sanctions are due the Court of Appeals for rendering a decision that was shown to be wrong, especially as it involves a whopping P28 billion that the CA justices could have saved for Meralco. Ganoon na lang ba?

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CLEAN AIR MONTH?: Unknown to commuters choking in the grimy soot floating along EDSA, to innocent children being sapped of their vitality, to mothers whose babies are seriously handicapped even before they are born… this month is supposed to be Clean Air Month!

The press releases of Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez said his department has launched this month an “intensified, all-out multi-sectoral support program in promoting awareness on issues concerning air pollution.”

Awareness? By their long-term exposure to it, most people are now very much aware of the unmitigated pollution that is slowly poisoning them to death. What is urgently needed is not press releases but resolute action — with the department of Alvarez taking the lead.

As we already have the Clean Air Act, what is sorely lacking is no-nonsense enforcement.

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PATENT HYPOCRISY: Fresh from his participation in the recent Earth Summit in South Africa where he made a lot of noise about his supposed fight against pollution and the degradation of the environment, look what Alvarez just did.

We’ve been told belatedly that, despite the availability of alternative power sources, he has given the go-signal for another coal-fired power plant in our hometown, Mabalacat, that municipality at the end of the North Luzon Expressway in Pampanga.

Now, why would Alvarez do such a reckless thing when global warming and the health hazards posed by large-scale burning of coal is known even to those who are not environment secretaries and pretentious participants in ecology summits?

That coal plant will spew poison into the air in our town and deleterious liquid wastes into nearby creeks. Alvarez, who reportedly wants to run in 2004 for vice president with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, does not care?

More on this arrogant abuse of discretion later.

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CATCHING SMOKE-BELCHERS: Having grown tired harping on this menace, we turn over the podium to one of our readers (using a cfsharp.com address) who have grown hoarse pleading for government action. Begging not to be identified, he says:

“The South Luzon Expressway on most entry points have huge signboards with a long litany of what is prohibited within the expressway, among them ‘smoke belching’ vehicles.

“However, smoke belchers are plying the expressway with impunity. The PNCC should be made to implement its own publicly-stated policy. Diesel-powered vehicles should be randomly checked before the entry gates. No need for testing equipment if that’s the problem, just people who get disgusted at the ugly sight of black stinking smoke.

“Floor the accelerator, and if black smoke belches from the tailpipe, sorry no entry. Those who make it through the tollgate should be apprehended by the PNCC guards.

“Imagine the impact of a vehicle denied entry in Calamba with destination Quezon City. It will hardly be able to make it that day and the owner will probably rather go to the repair shop to have his engine fixed.

“This is only one example that could be adopted in private subdivisions and other controlled areas. In fact, most of the export zones in Laguna and Cavite do not allow smoke belchers to enter.

“And here comes the government mandating cleaner (more expensive) fuel. That’s a good step in the right direction. But why go high-tech first before solving the more basic problem?

“Smoke belching is also a mechanical problem, not a problem of the fuel alone. If the cleaner fuel flows into the hundreds of thousand of defective, over-aged and poorly maintained diesel engines, how much cleaner air can we expect?

“The smoke belchers must be forced off the road and into the repair shops.”