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THE
Lopez bloc remained “untouchable” in the Manila Electric
Co. (Meralco) after it won a round versus corporate
regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and
the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) after the
appeals court ordered the temporary halt of
investigations on the management’s alleged defiance of
an order on proxy votes.
Manuel
Lopez, reelected chairman of the country’s largest
power-utility firm, and allies Jesus Francisco, Felipe
Alfonso, Christian Monsod, Anthony Rosete, Elpidio
Ibañez and Francis Giles Puno, secured Friday from the
Special Ninth Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) a
temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping for 60 days
the proceeding on the SEC’s cease-and-desist order (CDO)
issued on the eve of Meralco’s stockholders’ meeting
Tuesday.
In the
CA ruling dated May 30 and penned by Associate Justices
Vicente Roxas, Jose Sabio Jr. and Myrna Vidal, it
stated: “A TRO, so that status quo be maintained, is
hereby issued for a period of 60 days from service of
notice, restraining, enjoining and prohibiting
respondents, their representatives, agents, assignees
and all persons and officers acting for and in their
behalf, from proceeding on and causing the
implementation of the undated SEC CDO [which is alleged
to have been rendered moot and academic due to lack of
jurisdiction by the SEC and the SEC show-cause order
dated May 27].”
For her
part, GSIS legal counsel Estrella Elamparo on Sunday
said the government agency will not back down on its bid
to wrest control Meralco from the Lopezes as she pointed
out that the Court of Appeals made no mention of
stopping the SEC from hearing their petition questioning
the proxy votes.
Appearing in the weekly Balitaan sa Tinapayan news
forum, Elamparo showed no signs of being discouraged by
the successive setbacks the state pension fund has
suffered. “We will still continue with our fight,” she
said. “All we wanted was, in the long term, to have
cheap electricity and a public utility that is not
dominated by one family only.”
She
added that the state pension fund will persist with its
move to replace the top management of the power
distributor. A hearing on the GSIS’s application for
issuance of the writ of preliminary injunction is set on
June 23 and 24.
Elamparo
pointed out that if the court finds the evidence
sufficient to continue restraint, the court may issue a
preliminary injunction.
“We’re
sending a very wrong message to everybody that a party
can just defy a lawfully issued order by a court or any
quasijudicial agency because it can eventually get a TRO
form a higher court,” said Elamparo.
The GSIS,
which owns 25 percent of Meralco, filed with the SEC on
May 26 a complaint against the utility firm on alleged
illegal solicitation of proxy shares. It was the basis
used by the commission for issuing the CDO, citing the
validity of the complaint and its violation of the
Securities Regulation Code.
However,
The Lopez-controlled board defied this order and
proceeded with the voting during the stockholder’s
meeting on May 27. The Meralco nominees won the majority
of board seats, enabling the utility’s Lopez owners to
retain control of management. The Lopezes got five seats
in the 11-member board while the GSIS got four and the
remaining two are independent directors.
Meralco
also sought the intervention of the appellate court, as
company officials pointed out, that the SEC has no
jurisdiction over the issue. Settlement of
intracorporate disputes has been transferred to the
regular courts already.
The SEC,
meanwhile, said it will abide by the order of the CA and
will submit comments within the prescribed period given
to them. Commission secretary Gerard Lukban, who
received the CA order, said the SEC will not file a
motion to lift the TRO.
“We will
file our response and not a motion, and be represented
by our general counsel,” he said, adding that everything
is status quo and the Lopez bloc remains valid members
of the board. (With TJ Agcaoili) |
