Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
A certified public
accountant (CPA)-lawyer is the next appointee at the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC), taking on the post vacated by former Commissioner Geronimo D.
Sta. Ana who resigned last year.
According to highly
placed sources, the appointment papers of Paul Christian Cervantes, a partner
at accounting firm Reyes Tacandong & Co., is already due for release by the
Office of the President as of this writing and will be transmitted to ERC
Chairperson Agnes Devanadera.
The new commissioner
will reportedly show up at the ERC offices today and he will likely be starting
work next week.
Cervantes earned his juris doctor (JD) degree from the Ateneo de Manila School
of Law and had his accountancy degree from the University of Sto. Tomas.
His professional track
record spans over 10 years in handling tax and corporate advisory works to
various corporate organizations and businesses.
Prior to his stint at
Reyes Tacandong, Cervantes also worked for two years as senior associate at the
tax advisory and advocacy group of SGV & Co accounting firm.
The incoming ERC
Commissioner will complete the leadership of the power industry’s regulatory
body – and with him coming into the fold, it is anticipated that decisions and
processes at the Commission will finally turn faster.
The ERC had one void at
its Commission-level since September last year following Sta Ana’s decision to
cut short his term which is supposed to expire yet in year 2022.
The regulatory body of the restructured electricity sector has been saddled
with case-backlogs; and based on targets set by the ERC chairperson, it would
want to resolve and decide on at least 1,000 cases by first quarter this year.
Many of the pending
works they would need to focus their attention on are expiring power supply
agreements; as well as the approval of newly filed petitions so capacity
additions won’t suffer delays in reaching commercial operations.
The Commission will
also need to sort out modifications on the performance-based regulation of
tariff setting for regulated power utilities (like the distribution utilities
and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines).
No comments:
Post a Comment