Bayan Muna files charges vs ERC execs

MANILA, Philippines - Party-list group Bayan Muna filed criminal charges yesterday with the Office of the Ombudsman against chairperson Zenaida Ducut of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and three commissioners.

Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate accused Ducut, Alfredo Non, Gloria Victoria Yap-Taruc and Josefina Patricia Asirit of violating the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

The charges stemmed from the ERC officials’ failure to release the report on the results of their investigation into alleged collusion among and price fixing by power generators in the wholesale electricity spot market in October-December 2013.

The alleged irregularities were committed when the Malampaya natural gas plant was on a month-long maintenance shutdown.

These resulted in Meralco asking the ERC for an unprecedented P4.15-per-kilowatthour (kwh) rate increase, since the distributor procured part of its supply from the spot market.

The ERC approved the increase, but the Supreme Court, upon petition by Bayan Muna, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against its collection. The TRO remains in effect.

Despite repeated promises and the lapse of one year, Colmenares and Zarate said the ERC has failed to release its report.

They said the regulator already had a conclusion on what happened as early as March 3 this year, when it ordered that spot market prices between Oct. 26, 2013 and Dec. 25, 2013 be voided and replaced with “regulated prices.”

They said in issuing the order, the ERC found out that “the contrived supply shortage impaired the market and this resulted in market failure.”

They noted that in August this year, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp., which runs the spot market, submitted to the ERC a 74-page report identifying 12 power plants that allegedly violated trading rules and the period during which such violations were committed.

“Meanwhile, the DOE (Department of Energy) has been reporting that there is a possible lack of power supply in the summer of 2015 and is asking for emergency powers for President Aquino to respond to the supposed crisis,” they said.

They said the DOE is proposing that Aquino spend up to P12 billion to rent or buy generators from foreign suppliers.

They added that the projected short supply is again the result of a scheduled shutdown of the Malampaya plant.