Meralco asked: Don’t let affiliates bid for PSAs
LUCENA CITY—Bayan Muna party list has asked Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to “show delicadeza” by excluding its generation company (Genco) subsidiaries from bidding for Meralco power supply agreements (PSAs).
“Show delicadeza and quit self-dealing,” Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said in a statement on Friday.
The two particularly cited the 1,200-megawatt coal-fired power plant at Atimonan town in Quezon province.
Meralco Powergen Corp., the power generation subsidiary of Meralco is building the power plant along the coast of Lamon Bay.
Genco subsidiaries
Colmenares and Zarate demanded that Meralco exclude its genco subsidiaries and affiliates from bidding for Meralco PSAs “in order to dispel suspicions of rigging and assure consumers of getting the least cost of electricity from power suppliers.”
“These Meralco gencos joining the bidding are the same discredited gencos whose negotiated power supply agreements with their parent firm Meralco had been exposed in a congressional inquiry for their burdensome and overpriced pass-on charges to consumers,” he said in the statement.
“No less than the Supreme Court have stopped the PSAs, because Meralco awarded them without bidding in violation of government-mandated competitive selection process. Energy Regulatory Commission officials who accommodated these illegal PSAs had likewise been suspended for graft,” Colmenares said.
He said consumers “will suffer from a faulty bidding because such an exercise will not help pick the most deserving power suppliers” who were willing to sell electricity to Meralco and its customers at the least cost.
“Meralco will try to find ways to favor its own subsidiaries,” Colmenares added.
