ERC chief quits, eyes monetary board seat

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairwoman Fe Barin has submitted her resignation to Malacañang after she was offered a post at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

President Arroyo accepted yesterday Barin’s resignation, and said she would nominate her to the BSP’s policy-making body Monetary Board (MB).

Mrs. Arroyo immediately named ERC Commissioner Leticia Ibay to replace Barin.

Industry sources said Barin "found irresistible" the chance to return to the MB, where she had served for more than 26 years.

Barin replaces Teodoro Montecillo as private sector representative to the MB, after his six-year term expired Aug. 6.

Market sources said Barin has felt "harassed" in her post at the ERC, a watchdog for the energy sector, especially with the controversial passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).

Barin’s appointment last year as chairwoman of the five-member quasi-judicial body came as a surprise to the mild-mannered lady lawyer of the BSP.

"Everybody’s telling me I could have chosen a less stressful position in government at my age but it’s hard to say no to the President (Arroyo). How will you say no to the President? I took this challenge with open mind," she said, in an interview a few months after she assumed office in August 2001.

Barin knows the banking industry like no other. She served an uninterrupted 26 years as secretary to the MB. All in all though, Barin has logged a respectable 44 years in the government service and the banking industry.

The seven-member MB are all presidential appointees.

Malacañang had a hard time sorting the appointees for the ERC that it took the search committee almost two months to finally put together a five-member team led by Barin.

The other members of the ERC board are Ibay (Board of Investments executive director); Carlos Alindada (Sycip Gorres Velayo partner); Oliver Butalid (general manager, Subic Water and Sewerage System); and Mary Ann Colayco (Ayala Corp. managing director).

At the year’s onset, the ERC was one of the busiest government agencies processing and conducting public hearings for some 150 petitions from distribution utilities nationwide, including the National Power Corp., for the rate unbundling scheme.

ERC was one of the government agencies that had its hands full immediately after the passage of the (EPIRA).

The functions of the ERC under the EPIRA have been expanded to give more power to its Board to decide and penalize power utilities.

New ERC chairwoman Ibay is also a lawyer. She is married to Judge Francisco Ibay of Regional Trial Court 135 of Makati City. There was yet no word on who would be the fifth commissioner. – With Marichu Villanueva