A party-list group has asked the Supreme Court to lift the temporary restraining order it issued last year enjoining the implementation of the retail competition and open access policy of the Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission because it also restrains provisions that impede monopolies like the Manila Electric Co.
In a 31-page petition-in-intervention, Bayan Muna through its chairman Neri Javier Colmenares appealed that if the TRO cannot be lifted, it should instead clarify the coverage of the restraining order that excludes provisions of RCOA that dampened monopolies in the power industry.
Colmenares said that the TRO should not cover the provisions not assailed in the original petition filed by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry seeking to stop the implementation of the RCOA policy which was supposed to be implemented by the DOE and ERC in the power industry.
Under the RCOA policy, big power consumers are required to source their electricity supply from any of the 23 retail electricity suppliers designated by ERC.
