MANILA, Philippines -The Supreme Court has denied the petition of the Office of the Solicitor General to be excused from defending the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission in the petition assailing the Meralco rate hike. In its order, the high court ordered the OSG to defend the position of the ERC and DOE. The OSG had earlier wanted the SC to just let Meralco, the private respondent in the case, defend the controversial staggered rate hike. The SC said the OSG and the public respondents are required to file and serve a comment on or before January 17, and attend the preliminary conference on January 13. The SC also ordered the petitioners in the case to amend their petition to include the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) and several power suppliers, SEM-Calaca Power Corp., Masinloc Power Partners Corp., Therma Luzon Inc., San Miguel Energy Corp., South Premier Power Corp. and Therma Mobile Inc. as "necessary parties". It noted that records show that the said power suppliers have existing agreements with Meralco and supplied Meralco with power during November 2013, when the generation charge increased. At the same time, the SC premised its order to include the PEMC because it manages the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, and the petitioners alleged a very high ceiling price was revealed at P62 per kilowatt hour that was sold at the spot market which while normally the price was way below this on the average. Oral arguments are set on January 21.