Meralco withdraws raps vs Manor Hotel

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has withdrawn a pilferage complaint against the owners of Manor Hotel in Quezon City, site of a tragic fire last August that killed at least 78 persons, most of them delegates to a seminar of pastors.

This came after businessman William Ong Genato offered to settle Meralco’s P2.6 million claims out of court. Genato heads the Wil-Vic Construction Development Corporation, which owns the ill-fated hotel.

Meralco’s lawyer Alfonso Lacap, asked the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office Wednesday to withdraw charges for violation of Republic Act 7832, or the anti-electric pilferage and transmission lines theft law filed against Genato.

The complaint was filed last Oct. 8, or about a month after the tragedy struck the hotel. The Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office approved the motion yesterday.

Sources at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office said the two parties reached a compromise agreement last Jan. 8. Under the agreement, Genato was to pay Meralco P500,000 upon signing of the deal. The agreement requires the businessman to pay P62,000 monthly for 35 months thereafter.

Meralco discovered the pilferage after a team of inspectors it dispatched to investigate the cause of the fire found ‘electric jumpers’ at the hotel.

Genato and other officers of the family-owned corporation also face charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. – Romel Bagares