A TAGUIG City Regional Trial Court on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) conduct of a competitive selection process for its 600 and 400 megawatts (MW) additional power supply.
In a five-page order promulgated on July 31, Executive Judge Byron San Pedro granted the petition filed by the consortium operating the Malampaya gas field — Prime Energy, Prime Oil and Gas Inc., UC38 LLC, and the Philippine National Oil Exploration Corp.
The order stopped Meralco from proceeding with its bidding effective September 2025, whose bid submission deadline was set on Aug. 2, 2024.
“Upon evaluation of the allegations contained in the verified complaint for injunction, it appears from the facts shown that great or irreparable injury would result to the plaintiffs-applicants before the writ of preliminary injunction could be heard,” the court said, adding that there exists “extreme urgent necessity” to issue a TRO “to prevent further damage to the plaintiffs’ interests, the government and the environment.”
The complainants said that Meralco’s bidding done through CSP was “flawed and grossly violative of existing laws.”
They said that the Terms of Reference “violates the preference given to indigenous natural gas.”
“The Meralco terms of reference for the scheduled bids ‘unduly disadvantages power suppliers which use ING (indigenous natural gas) as a fuel source’,” the consortium’s petition read.
The TRO was urgent, it said, because without it, power suppliers using indigenous gas would be fenced off in the bidding for 600 MW and 400 MW deals.
“Lack of demand for Malampaya’s supply would necessarily lead to lack of revenue, ultimately hitting the government’s 60 percent share in revenues,” they added.
Government revenue from Malampaya had reached P374 billion as of 2023.
“Increased reliance on imported sources of fuel threatens the country’s energy security and energy sovereignty because these are greatly susceptible to a volatile market,” they added.
Meralco, however, said all its Competitive Selection Processes (CSPs) follow government rules.
“We would like to stress that all CSPs for our supply requirements are done in accordance with existing rules of Department of Energy (DoE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” Meralco Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Management Jose Ronald Valles said.
“Moreover, we have yet to receive the temporary restraining order issued by the Taguig RTC. We reiterate that it is our mandate to ensure that we conduct these in a timely manner, as delay will expose our consumers to unnecessary burden in the amount of billions of pesos in the form of higher power rates,” Valles added.
“It is our mandate to ensure that we conduct these in a timely manner, as delay will expose our consumers to unnecessary burden in the amount of billions of pesos in the form of higher power rate,” he added.
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