Bayan Muna to file charges vs ERC execs

MANILA, Philippines - Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said yesterday he would file charges against Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) officials unless they release their report on alleged market collusion and price fixing this week.

“They are now subject to administrative and criminal cases before the ombudsman if they fail to release their report,” he said.

ERC Chairman Zenaida Ducut is facing an administrative case before the Office of the President in connection with such alleged collusion and fraudulent pricing.

The report is about alleged collusion among participants in the wholesale electricity spot market in November and December 2013, which resulted in an unprecedented increase in electricity rates.

Because it bought from the spot market, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) petitioned the ERC for a record P4.15 per kilowatthour increase, which the Supreme Court (SC) stopped upon the petition of Bayan Muna.

However, before the SC issued the order, Meralco had collected the increase from hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of customers in Metro Manila. Meralco has more than five million customers.

Colmenares said ERC executive director Francis Juan promised during the House plenary deliberations on the 2015 budget that the collusion report would be released last Oct. 25.

“It is already November and still no report. The ERC initially committed to come out with its report on Dec. 30, 2013, then Jan. 6, which was extended to March 2014 and then again to Oct. 25,” he said.

“The people should not be blamed for thinking that the report is being whitewashed so the culprits behind unprecedented power rate hike will be exonerated,” he said.

He said it is important that the ERC report is made public and the culprits behind market collusion and price fixing be identified to prevent a repetition of such irregularity.

Colmenares noted that the fraud took place when the Malampaya natural gas plant in Palawan went on a month-long maintenance shutdown.

Malampaya is again set to shut down for about a month from mid-March to April next year, during which time Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla has predicted a shortfall in power supply, he said.

He said the public should be on guard against possible collusion again.

He also urged Petilla to ask Shell, which runs Malampaya, to postpone the plant’s shutdown until after next summer.

President Aquino has asked Congress to give him special authority to rent or buy generators from foreign suppliers, which could cost up to P12 billion, to boost supply in Luzon for the 2015 summer months.