60 new power plants built in P-Noy’s term, says Petilla

MANILA, Philippines - Private investors have built 60 power plants during the incumbency of President Aquino to address growing demand for electricity, former Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said.

“And the President will be inaugurating more plants before his term ends next year,” he said in a television interview.

As energy secretary, Petilla said he said he tried to promote competition and level the field among industry players to bring down prices.

However, he said some “big players” did not like what he was doing and tried to keep the cost of electricity high.

He added that the law itself is one of the culprits behind high power prices.

“It allows cross ownership of generation plants and distribution companies. If you have the same groups of people owning power plants and power distributors, how can you have real competition?” he asked.

Petilla pointed out that the law promotes instead of discourages conflict of interest among industry players.

“You cannot avoid suspicions of sweetheart deals between a power plant and a distribution owned by the same investors under this set-up,” he stressed.

But even with the defects in the law, he said there are some areas in the country that are able to bring down electricity cost through a “competitive selection process.”

“Central Luzon is one example. It was able to reduce the cost to P3.20 per kilowatt-hour, versus P5.20 to P6 in Mindanao,” he said.

The former energy chief admitted to being disappointed with Aquino’s appointment of Geronimo Sta. Ana as commission of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which regulates the power industry.

“I felt that Mr. Sta. Ana was compromised because he was identified with a big industry player,” he said.

He said Sta. Ana’s appointment was one of the reasons he quit as energy secretary.

“The President and I had a long discussion on this. We talked about how to move forward. I told him that we should have the right people in the ERC. You can have a wrong energy secretary but not a wrong ERC commissioner,” he said.

He added that ERC members have a fixed tenure and cannot be removed from office except for cause.

It is the people who will suffer from their possible conflict of interest and their wrong decisions, he stressed.