KIDAPAWANCITY (MindaNews/19 May) — The Regional Trial Court Branch 17 has set for May 31 the second hearing on the case filed by Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista against the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and other energy service providers on the city’s demand for its share of 25% load dispatch during energy crises.
The city has been suffering from long power outages.
Napocor filed a motion to dismiss the case but Evangelista’s lawyers opposed it during the preliminary hearing on May 17.
Both parties were ordered to submit a memorandum of their motions and argumentations. The court also ordered the submission of data as to the megawatts the geothermal power plants of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) generated last April.
This, the court explained, would determine if the 25 percent priority load dispatch from the geothermal power plants the city hosts, was supplied to Cotelco.
Evangelista’s lawyer, Gary Vergara, cited as basis for their opposition to dismiss the case, the guidelines issued in March 2002 by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) that prohibit parties to file motion to dismiss on cases involving mandamus.
Evangelista filed a “Mandamus with Prayer for the Issuance of a Writ of Preliminary Injunction and Damages” with the RTC branch 17 against Energy Secretary Jose Almendras; Froilan Tampinco, Napocor president and its Board of Directors; Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., president of the Power Sector Assets Liabilities and Management (PSALM), and its Board of Directors; and Richard Tantoco, EDC President and Chief Executive Officer and its Board of Directorsm, for allegedly not heeding the city’s demand to be given its share of electricity from the geothermal power plants it hosts.
Last April, the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), the service provider for Kidapawan City and in the whole province of North Cotabato, was given only a load of about 20 megawatts.
This reduced further to 15.4 megawatts when the Pulangi-IV hydroelectric power plant in Bukidnon province underwent preventive maintenance.
Some of the lawyers for the respondents sought the court’s approval for the deferment of the May 17 hearing but the vice mayor and his lawyers asked that the case be resolved immediately.
Counsels for Napocor questioned the court’s jurisdiction over the case but Evangelista maintained only courts, including the RTC, Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court, have jurisdiction over the matter.
Napocor lawyers argued that when power plants in Mindanao were sold to private firms, it was no longer a signatory to contracts signed between power utilities, Cotelco in particular, and the PSALM.
They also said under the Energy Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), Napocor’s mandate is limited only to the operation of the remaining unsold generating assets of the government; engaged in missionary electrification in off-grid and unviable areas; and watershed management. (Malu Manar/MindaNews)