Government urged to proceed with sale of Napocor

MANILA, Philippines - Big power plant owners have urged the government to continue with the privatization of the assets of the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA) president Ernesto Pantangco said privatization is still crucial to raise much-needed capital for the power sector.

“We still think that privatization is still required in order to put in the much-needed investments to rehabilitate the power plants and to make them more reliable, so that’s why we’re still pushing for privatization of all the Napocor assets and contracts,” he said.

He said the privatization has also helped increase the generation capacities in the sector.

“This has been borne out of the fact that any power plant that the private sector has taken over, there has been an increase in capacity to a reliable level plus new investments will be put in to further improve the installed capacities,” he said.

“Masinloc is an example: From a reliable 250 MW now its 600 MW plus; Pantabangan-Masiway, we have an additional 20 MW; Ambuklao Binga is now being put back on line because the investments are there,” he noted.

“Our group is putting in the necessary investments for Bacon-Manito. We hope we can get everything completed for Bacon-Manito by next year, and were putting in the investments needed,” he added.

The PIPPA official said these additional capacities would benefit the sector.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has put off the sale of big-ticket items to next year. PSALM has lined up only two more power barges to be sold for the remaining months of the year.

Malacañang has already appointed a new PSALM president in Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr.

Ledesma has garnered more than 20 years in the banking industry, the most recent of which is as managing director and country head of the Royal Bank of Canada. This is his first posting in government service.

PSALM, created under the restructured Philippine electric power industry (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) in 2001, is tasked to manage, privatize and dispose of all existing generation assets, liabilities, real estate and other disposable resources of Napocor.