By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated February 4, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – Lopez-owned
Energy Development Corp. (EDC), through subsidiary BacMan Geothermal Inc.
(BGI), will receive from contractor Weir Engineering Services Ltd. over $5
million in damages following a favorable decision from the International Chamber
of Commerce (ICC).
EDC said the ICC’s International
Court of Arbitration on Feb. 1 has made partial award in favor of BGI for
Weir’s breaches of contract.
Weir was ordered to pay BGI $4.4
million within seven days of the date of the partial award, together with
post-award simple interest rate of 5.33 percent per annum.
The ICC Tribunal noted this is based
on the “favorable determination by the engineer which are sums owed by Weir to
BGI under the contract.”
The international court also
ordered Weir to pay BGI another $887,902 “as reimbursement for the legal
costs incurred by BGI in connection with the emergency arbitrator and Phase 1
proceedings at the ICC.”
Meanwhile, the remaining disputes
between the parties will be decided by the ICC tribunal in the future award.
In April last year, BGI sought for
an arbitration with the ICC to enforce its contract, which Weir violated.
Weir had sought for legal relief
with the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission (CIAC).
However, the ICC tribunal has
declared it has the exclusive jurisdiction to hear and finally determine the
parties disputes.
With that, it ordered that the
contractor is restrained from pursuing proceedings in any other dispute
resolution forum, including the CIAC.
The international court also
“dismissed all other claims brought in connection with Phase 1 whether by BGI
or Weir, save for BGI’s application for damages for wasted costs, which the
partial award reserved for final determination in Phase 2.”
EDC acquired the Bacon-Manito
(BacMan) plant in Albay from the government in May 2010 with a winning bid of
$28.25 million in an auction conducted by the Power Sector Assets and
Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), which has the mandate to privatize
state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) assets.
The BacMan plant consists of Unit 1
(55 MW), Unit 2 (55 MW) and Unit 3 (20 MW) and started operating early 2015,
after more than a year of delay due to breach of contract on the part of its
contractors tapped to rehabilitate the facility.
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