FIRST, a bit of good news that may restore some faith that courts in the Philippines are capable of acting sensibly: Last Monday, the Taguig Regional Trial Court (RTC) lifted a temporary restraining order it had imposed on July 31 against electricity distributor Meralco, preventing the latter from carrying out its competitive selection process (CSP) for 600 megawatts of electricity supply, an exercise it had intended to do on August 2.

The petition for the TRO was filed by the Malampaya Consortium, the group of companies led by the Razon conglomerate's Prime Energy, alleging that Meralco's CSP was 'flawed, skewed or supplier-driven and grossly violative of existing laws, rules and regulations,' because its terms would give preference to suppliers using imported liquified natural gas (LNG), rather than those powered by gas from the Malampaya field.