Napocor wages to hike power rate

Manila Standard Today
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Oct. 26, 2014 at 11:50pm

The Supreme Court’s decision requiring state-run National Power Corp. to pay the back wages of former employees will increase the cost of electricity by at least P0.13 per kilowatt-hour over the next 10 years, an official said over the weekend.

Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. told reporters the Supreme Court’s ruling allowed the agency to recover from consumers the payment to the NPC Drivers and Mechanics Association.

Ledesma said PSALM, which manages the assets and liabilities of National Power Corp., could file for a recovery of P0.13 per kWh from consumers under the universal charge for stranded debt.

“The impact on electricity bills is estimated at P0.13 per kWh over a period of 10 years,” he said.

PSALM is set to file with the Supreme Court its own computation on the claims of Napocor employees. The Supreme Court earlier stopped the implementation of the order to garnish the assets of PSALM to pay the Napocor drivers and mechanics.

The move is meant for the Supreme Court to determine who and how much would be paid to the employees of Napocor.

“Based on our list, it’s lower than P62 billion, around P35 billion, or P36 billion,” Ledesma said. PSALM said around 9,000 employees were entitled to back wages and other benefits from Napocor.

The Supreme Court ruled that the former employees were entitled to backwages and other benefits totaling P62 billion.

“We are requesting for a breakdown of the P62 billion. Where did the P62 billion come from? It should be per employee,” Ledesma said earlier.

The Napocor employees filed a class suit against the government corporation in 2002, which the Supreme Court upheld.

Napocor president Ma. Gladys Sta. Rita earlier said the issue started with the restructuring of the electric power industry and the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.

Sta. Rita said based on Napocor’s computation, the back wages and other adjustments, considering the interest rate and the Commission on Audit’s findings “is much lesser than P60.2 billion.”   source