Barin vows energy body will be independent

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has vowed to become a strong and purely independent economic regulator in the newly-restructured power industry.

"The ERC would be impartial and free from the influence, pressures and dictates of the outside world," ERC chairman Fe B. Barin said in a speech during the recent Philippines Electricity Conference sponsored by the Makati business cub and the Management Association of the Philippines.

Barin stressed that under the Power Law of 2001, only the ERC could exercise the economic regulation of the electric power industry.

The ERC chief said the commission’s independence from any influences would be anchored on three important factors.

Barin said the ERC should be provided with a strength which would come from vast regulatory powers and functions.

She said they should be able to recruit competent and well-qualified regulatory staff in the commission.

"We are now in the process of completing our plantilla. We need to have more good people in the commission aside from the existing ones," she said.

Barin also acknowledged the increased authority given to the ERC to impose penalties and sanctions.

She said they would maintain impartiality in the commission particularly in performing the combined functions of administrative, quasi-judicial, and quasi-legislative functions.

Immediately after the passage of the Republic Act No. 9136 or Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the old Energy Regulatory Board was replaced by ERC, which is considered the most powerful regulatory body in the country‘s power industry today.

The five members of the ERC board came from the public and private sector, not necessarily form the power industry. The law, however, provides that the ERC chairperson be a lawyer.

Barin is the former executive secretary of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.