SEPARATE OPINION
CAGUIOA, J.:
I concur with the ponencia except with respect to the legal interest imposed on the judgment award.
I humbly submit my reservation in the ponencia's categorization of a sale of goods on credit as a forbearance of credit1 subject to the legal interest rate of 12% per annum from extrajudicial demand until June 30, 2013, and 6% per annum starting July 1, 2013 under Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Monetary Board Circular No. 799, series of 2013. The judgment award should instead be subject to the legal interest under the Civil Code of 6% per annum from extrajudicial demand on July 27, 2012 until full payment.
Notably, the term "forbearance" involves (1) an agreement or contractual obligation (2) to refrain from enforcing payment or to extend the period for the payment of (3) an obligation that has become due and demandable, (4) in return for some compensation, i.e., interest. The delay or refusal to pay the sums due Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils., Inc.(awÞhi( (Coca-Cola) under the dealership agreement, ipso facto, did not constitute a forbearance of money, goods, or credit. Coca-Cola did not actually agree or even acquiesce and is not contractually obliged to refrain from enforcing payment in exchange for interest, but merely failed to exact payment. Credit sales, even when there is (1) a price differential between cash payments and credit payments or (2) a stipulation as to the payment of interest, do not constitute loans and forbearances of money in the context of the Usury Law, and are beyond the authority granted to the BSP. Hence, the BSP-prescribed rate cannot apply.
Footnotes
1 Ponencia, pp. 23-24.
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