House panel defers from making conclusions on Meralco power deals

The House of Representatives’ good government and energy committees have issued a joint report leaving it up to the Energy Regulatory Commission to “immediately resolve” the Manila Electric Company’s (Meralco) seven power supply agreements (PSA) applications, which have been criticized as “midnight deals.”

Committee Report (CR) No. 632 stated that the committees headed by Reps. Johnny Pimentel and Lord Allan Jay Velasco “shall defer from acting on it and submit to the discretion of the quasi-judicial body.”

The report stated that issuing its conclusions on the alleged irregularities in the Meralco PSA applications “would pose the possibility of a legislative committee and a quasi-judicial body arriving at conflicting decisions.”

“If the Committees’ findings were to be reached before the ERC could resolve the issue before it, the possibility of the former to influence these findings and bear on the ultimate decision of ERC cannot be discounted,” the report read.

The committee report also raised the “need for legislation” to address “certain issues pertaining to the powers and mandate of ERC” under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.

No mention of accountabilities

CR 632, however, did not address the liabilities of the ERC officials who approved the deferment of rules that require power supply requirements to be bidded out to drive down consumer prices.

The deferment of the competitive selection process (CSP) rule, which was supposed to have taken effect on Nov. 6, 2015, allowed Meralco to file the seven PSA applications in April 2016 without having to abide by the bidding requirement.

Meralco was thus able to negotiate the seven PSAs with its own sister power generation companies for a total supply of 3,551 megawatts.

Pimentel, chair of the good government committee, said the accountability of ERC’s commissioners would be the subject of another committee report later.

CR 632 only tackled Minority Leader Danilo Suarez’s House Resolution No. 1161, which pressed the ERC to immediately approve the seven PSAs to avoid problems with the power supply in the Luzon grid.

Pimentel said the resolution did not yet cover House Resolution No. 566, filed by Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, a staunch critic of the ERC. Zarate’s resolution called the deferment of the CSP rules anomalous and raised fears of new rounds of price spikes.

“We are still preparing our report [on the ERC officials’ accountability], considering there are two resolutions filed regarding the ERC,” Pimentel said in a text message.

The Office of the Ombudsman on Dec. 11 already found all four commissioners of the ERC—Gloria Victoria Yap-Taruc, Alfredo Non, Josefina Patricia Magpala-Asirit and Geronimo Sta. Ana—as well as dismissed chairman Jose Vicente Salazar guilty of the administrative offense of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, aggravated by simple misconduct and simple neglect of duty.

The Ombudsman ordered the commissioners’ suspension for one year, but the Court of Appeals on Feb. 9 issued a 60-day temporary restraining order on the enforcement of the disciplinary sanction so as “not to impair public service.” /je