Manila Standard Today
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III has signed an order condoning the fines and penalties on the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon to stop its planned auction today and prevent a possible increase in the price of electricity as a result of it.
The President also condoned the fines and penalties on the other independent power producers in the province in Executive Order 27 dated Feb. 28.
The Pagbilao plant supplies 7 percent of the electricity in Luzon, but the provincial government has threatened to auction it off to collect the P6.1 billion in real property taxes that it claims the plant’s operator, Team Energy Corp., owes it.
Still, Mr. Aquino said the forcible collection of the back taxes from the Pagbilao plant and the other power producers would increase the liabilities of National Power Corp and the Power Assets Liabilities Management Corp., the company tasked to manage and privatize National Power’s assets.
The forced collection would also “increase the cost of electricity, and may trigger further cross-defaults and colossal economic losses across all sectors.”
“All fines, penalties, and interest on such deficiency are also hereby condoned and the concerned IPPs are relieved from payment thereof,” Mr. Aquino said in his order. Joyce Pangco Pañares and Alena Mae S. Flores
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