House okays 50-year Transco franchise

The House committee on legislative franchises approved yesterday the 50-year franchise application of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco), the entity to which the transmission lines of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) were transferred.

Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon), committee chairman, said the bill containing the application will be endorsed to the entire House, which is expected to pass it before Congress adjourns its first regular session next Thursday.

He said the grant of the Transco franchise would pave the way for the privatization of Napocor’s transmission lines and other assets.

The transmission lines alone are expected to bring in between $2 billion and $2.5 billion which will be used to pay for part of the $6.5 billion debt of Napocor, he said.

The partial payment of the debt will in turn result in the reduction of the controversial purchased power adjustment (PPA), he added.

Napocor officials have told the Zubiri committee that there are at least six foreign companies interested in bidding for the Transco assets.

These include Asea Brown Boveri, a company owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Kashing, and a French firm.

In her recent visit to Japan, President Arroyo invited Japanese investors to take a look at Napocor’s assets.

The House was scheduled last night to open floor debates on the Transco bill but failed to do so when Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr. raised the question of quorum.

This prompted Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, who was the presiding officer, to adjourn the session.

Syjuco said he counted only 73 of his colleagues in the session hall, comprising a third of the House membership.

"It’s absenteeism again," opposition Rep. Ronaldo Zamora of San Juan said.

In a related development, Leyte Rep. Ted Failon reiterated his proposals yesterday for provinces, cities and towns hosting power generation facilities that use indigenous sources of energy be exempted from the PPA.

Failon said it is ironic that residents of these host local government units pay the highest electricity rates despite the fact that their power plants are using cheap energy sources.

Leyte is host to some geothermal plants.

"We thought that because Region 8 hosts a vast resources of cheap geothermal energy, specifically in Tongonan, electricity would be cheap," said Failon.

He said official data showed that Napocor’s basic rates in the Luzon grid and in Mindanao were P1.8743 and P1.4028 per kilowatt-hour (kwh), respectively, against P2.0525 in the Visayas.

"We cannot understand why Visayans paid the highest rate," he added. — Jess Diaz