Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star)
- January 24, 2020 - 12:00am
A company with P7,000 paid-up
capital has taken control of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM). For
every kilowatt-hour that consumers pay for, 50 centavos goes to the company
“dubiously set up only in May 2018.” Within months it earned more than P100 million.
That favored company is Independent
Electric Market Operator of the Philippines, Rep. Jericho Nograles exposed this
week. How and why IEMOP gained management of WESM, the lawmaker who hails from
Davao City wanted to know. There was no competitive selection process, he
noted. With measly capitalization IEMOP was able to operate the
multibillion-peso market. It even took over hundreds of millions worth of
government-funded IT assets.
“Laway lang ang puhunan,” Nograles
briefed the House committee on energy. “Ginigisa ang electric users – tayong
lahat – sa sariling mantika.”
From submissions, IEMOP has no
experience or assets to act as WESM operator. “It’s P7,000-paid-up is not even
enough for a food cart franchise,” remarked Nograles, much more WESM, the trading
bourse of electricity producers and distributors.
IEMOP was formed on May 15, 2018,
with seven incorporators pitching in P1,000 each. It described itself as
“non-stock, nonprofit ... to become the Independent Market Operator of the
WESM.” Only four months old it then entered into an agreement with the original
WESM operator, Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), to run the market.
The Electric Power Industry Reform
Act of 2001 mandates the creation of an independent operator to supersede PEMC,
which the Secretary of Energy chaired and the state-owned National Transmission
Corp. oversaw. Still, Nograles said, there should have been competitive
selection to determine the most competent and best equipped.
The Dept. of Energy replied
instantly in its Facebook account. Disavowing a sweetheart deal, DoE claimed
that no competitive bidding was required under the EPIRA law. Besides, IEMOP
collected only half a centavo, not 50¢, per kilowatt-hour. A transition plan
was implemented, during which Energy Sec. Al Cusi first resigned as PEMC
chairman, followed by the “spinoff” of IEMOP. Experience supposedly was derived
from the transfer of PEMC’s “system” to the “independent” IEMOP.
Nograles rejected that: “The deal is
against public interest and flouts EPIRA.” Rule 9, Section 6(a) of EPIRA’s
implementing rules and regulations (IRR) requires the independent operator to
be “financially and technically capable, with proven experience and expertise
of not less than two (2) years as a leading independent operator of a similar
or larger size electricity market.”
IEMOP clearly failed to meet those
requirements, Nograles said. It smacked of the MRT-3 scam of 2012, but on a
grander scale. There the metro rail maintenance contractor suddenly was
replaced by a newborn, undercapitalized but politically influential firm, which
took over the personnel, equipment and parts inventory.
Too, IEMOP is unauthorized to
collect even the half-centavo per kilowatt-hour, or more than P50 million per
month, from consumers, Nograles added. Unlike predecessor PEMC, it has no
permission from the Energy Regulatory Commission, which approves all power
exactions.
But why is DoE the one defending the
supposedly independent IEMOP, Nograles asks.
The answer perhaps lies in part in
Securities and Exchange Commission records. IEMOP‘s P7,000 incorporators in May
2018 were:
• Oscar E. Ala,
• Francis Saturnino C. Juan,
• Rauf A. Tan,
• Ma. Rene Ann Lourdes A.
Garcia-Matibag,
• Jose Mari T. Bigornia,
• Jose M. Layug Jr., and
• Carroll U. Tang.
In their Sep. 2018 Operating
Agreement, Oscar Ala and Francis Saturnino Juan signed as presidents of PEMC
and IEMOP, respectively. Rauf Tan witnessed, as PEMC director/CGO.
Garcia-Matibag is the wife of Melvin
Matibag, president/CEO of the DoE’s National Transmission Corp. Under the EPIRA
law, Transco supervised PEMC, including its transition to IEMOP. Matibag was
Terminal 3 manager when Cusi was Manila International Airport general manager
in the 2000s. He later succeeded Cusi as GM.
Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Lawyer Nograles alleges breach of public interest in a deal involving
presidential appointees. The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission might wish
to investigate. As well, the Ombudsman. It would be for the good of all.
*
* *
Evacuees from five towns around
slow-boiling Taal Volcano understandably are restive. It is hard to just sit by
in a refugee camp while their abandoned pets and livestock starve, their houses
and vehicles need cleaning from corrosive sulfuric ash fall, and their farms
and businesses need tending. Denial, anger, bargaining and depression can be
contagious in cramped living conditions. Acceptance is farthest from their
mind, while at the same time hoping for an explosion or a simmer down to get it
over and done with. Thus they defy police lockdowns and attempt to sneak back
to their homes, farms, fish pens and shops. Some have been videoed fishing for
tilapia in the caldera, well within the danger zone. A senior couple dared the
cops to shoot them in their honest desire to retrieve some valuables at home. A
vice mayor even belittled state volcanologists’ warnings of imminent eruption,
based on the magma rise, steam emissions, ground fissures, and earth shakes.
They direly need medical and psychological care.
No comments:
Post a Comment