ERC Commissioner Butalid eyed to head PSALM; Osorio to ERC
Monday, May 15, 2006
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
With the government’s desperate bid to fast track the privatization of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) generation assets, Malacañang is seriously considering to install retiring Energy Regulatory Commissioner Oliver B. Butalid to head the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) after he bows out of current office next month.
It was gathered that sitting PSALM president Nieves L. Osorio will likely get appointment as a Commissioner of the ERC; replacing one of the retiring officials of the regulatory body.
Aside from Butalid, ERC Commissioner Jesus N. Alcordo will also be ending his tenure this June. Several names have been listed as likely replacements, including ERC Director and General Counsel Francis Saturnino Juan and former East Asia Power Corporation executive Jose Reyes.
A ranking energy official has hinted that the Palace is really bent on pushing forward NPC’s privatization; and they are keenly eyeing somebody who can stir up investment interests; and that potential is supposedly being seen in Butalid.
With his stint in government service, including that of the Department of Trade and Industry; and the experience and knowledge build-up he had acquired while serving ERC, they noted that Butalid would likely deliver on expectations as far as privatization of the state-owned monopoly is concerned.
Given the anticipated re-aligments in government agencies which are in-charge of NPC’s privatization, a propaganda has been mounting to stop the sale of the state-run power firm’s generation facilities, with some quarters preferring that investments would ground to a halt, so that this country would suffer new round of power crisis and drags NPC into signing new and expensive power purchase agreements.
PSALM itself has been complaining that NPC has not been cooperative enough in providing all documents needed by interested investors in due diligence processes; hence, making it doubly hard for Osorio and others before her, to carry out the task of divesting the generation assets.
It would be recalled that it had been played several instances in newspaper headlines and columns that land titles, permits and other documents are not being made easily accessible to interested investors.
Some quarters at the state-owned NPC are reportedly irate at the provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) that latch onto the lap of the private sector, primarily distribution utilities, the mandate of contracting for new round of power supply for the country.
This situation can only be reversed if there is a power crisis situation; thus, the earnestness of the NPC’s anti-privatization camps to wait when supply shortages are experienced, so that supply procurement can be given back to NPC; notwithstanding past experience that such set-up committed the entire country to mounting debts and budget deficits.
Section 71 of the EPIRA prescribes that "upon determination by the President of the Philippines of an imminent shortage of the supply of electricity, Congress may authorize, through a joint resolution, the establishment of additional generating capacity under such terms and conditions as it may approve."
Speeding up divestment of the NPC assets is seen very crucial because this will also determine the pace of other reform process set for the power industry; including the introduction of open access and retail competition which are envisioned to provide choices for electricity consumers and array of benefits for them in the long-run.
While propaganda works are intensifying from anti-privatization segments, they have launched offensives on lawmakers and media supposedly "taunting Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla and Osorio for bending over backwards to sell the assets with whatever it takes."
The foray of retail competition in the power industry would only become possible until after 70-percent of the NPC’s generation assets in Visayas and Mindanao would have been transferred under the charge of private investors
posted by philpower @ 9:23 AM,
