Ombudsman plays the clown with ERC ruling

ON September 5, Ombudsman Samuel Martires issued what is one of the most embarrassingly faulty and ill-considered rulings ever to come out of the Office of the Ombudsman. He ordered the six-month preventive suspension of Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairman Monalisa Dimalanta at the behest of the National Association of Electric Consumers for Reform Inc. (Nasecore), which is one of those insufferable, self-appointed organizations posing as consumer advocates even though no one asked or wants them to.

Martires' decision was in response to a complaint filed by Nasecore in November 2023, which has been characterized by the group — and repeated by every news outlet in town, including this one — as a charge against the ERC and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) Chairman and President Manny V. Pangilinan (even though the Office of the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction in the latter's case) for Meralco's purchase of electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) without approval. This allegedly led to unnecessarily high electric rates for consumers and was thus a dereliction of duty on the ERC's part.