By:
Jerome Aning / 07:12 AM June 10, 2018
HEAVY
USERS A jungle of wires and meters greets passersby in Payatas, Quezon City, an
area with high electricity consumption and directly affected by movements in
power rates. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
The militant party-list
group Bayan Muna on Friday challenged Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chair
Agnes Devanadera to reveal the extent of her consulting work for one of the
controversial power supply agreements (PSAs) that Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)
awarded to several affiliated firms without bidding.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos
Isagani Zarate and Bayan Muna chair and former Congressman Neri Colmenares
cited media reports that Devanadera had consultancy work that dealt with one of
Meralco’s PSAs.
Devanadera, in media
interviews early this week, mentioned her consultancy work with one Meralco PSA
and her decision to inhibit herself from its ongoing review.
She, however, said her
inhibition would mean lack of quorum at the ERC.
Doubt cast
“That she has worked
for Meralco before casts doubt on Devanadera’s motive in insisting to process
these expensive deals,” Colmenares said in a statement.
He said the power deals
were being pushed despite findings by the House of Representatives and the
Ombudsman that “these contracts were illegal for failing to comply with ERC’s
competitive selection process (CSP).”
Bayan Muna members
staged protests in Metro Manila on Friday to mark the 17th anniversary of
Republic Act No. 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.
Two House committees
that investigated Meralco and the ERC earlier concluded in their joint report
that officials and employees of the ERC, then chaired by Jose Vicente Salazar,
might have committed wrongdoing related to the issuance of ERC Resolution No.
1, series of 2016, which delayed the implementation of CSP.
Window
The delay gave Meralco
a window to negotiate deals with its own subsidiaries and affiliates for supply
of 3,551 megawatts of electricity.
But four ERC
commissioners were suspended by the Ombudsman for their role in issuing the ERC
resolution.
Devanadera was spared
from the Ombudsman penalty because she was not yet with the ERC when the
resolution was issued in March 2016.
Zarate earlier said a
hefty P1.55-per-kilowatt-hour increase in electricity was imbedded in the seven
PSAs.
Based on Zarate’s
calculation, the P1.55 per kWh rate will cost millions of Meralco customers
P54.54 billion in additional charges per annum.
Over the 20-year
duration of the contracts, Meralco customers would have paid P3.2 trillion,
according to Zarate.
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