Gov’t mulls Angat plant rebid

Manila Bulletin 
By Myrna M. Velasco 
Published: July 15, 2013 
If Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water) still refuses to accept the 218-megawatt privatized Angat hydropower facility, the Philippine government is intending to rebid the asset to level the playing field for all parties which might still be interested to acquire it.
In an interview with reporters, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla qualified that the facility, once abandoned by K-Water, will not be given to the second highest bidder – which is First Gen of the Lopez Group.
The only other option being mulled by government is to “just keep the plant” and let the National Power Corporation (NPC)-Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) continuously operate it.
“We just need one more meeting with them (K-Water) – to know if it’s a go or no-go. Whatever the decision is, the plant will run,” Petilla stressed.
With the stance not to bow down to the conditions lodged by K-Water, Petilla averred that the Philippine government is ready to take “unresolved matters” to litigation.
He further indicated that the $440.8-million payment for the Angat plant, which would have been anticipated to flow in the State’s coffer this year, will no longer be needed to plug any anticipated budgetary shortfall – and that has already been sounded off by the Department of Finance.
“If they (K-Water) will not agree, they can take us to court. I told them, your next action is: you can take us to court if you want to. It is clear to them that we can sue each other, but nobody will win,” Petilla stressed.
The Philippine government though, he intimated, is inclined to elevate the matter to judicial action, because this “will give us leverage to run the plant while the case is being tried in court.”
Petilla noted that K-Water primarily questioned the depreciation in the value of the plant, because its condition when it was auctioned three years ago had been different.   source