SC validates sale of Iligan plant to Alsons subsidiary
By Myrna M. Velasco – December 1, 2022, 5:04 PM
from Manila Bulletin
The Supreme Court has validated the divestment of the 103-megawatt IIigan diesel power facility to Conal Holdings Corporation (CHC), a subsidiary of the Alcantara-led Alsons Power Corporation.
A recent ruling by the high court upheld the approval granted by the Commission on Audit (COA) on the sale of the plant to the Alcantara firm; which was concretized through a privatization process pursued by the city government of Iligan.
Since 2013, the plant has already been placed under the charge of Mapalad Power Corporation, which is also a subsidiary-company of the Alcantara group; and that corporate entity has been operating the asset since then.
The question on the generating facility’s sale stemmed from the valuation drawn by the city government; which was also subsequently upheld by the State auditor.
According to Alsons Power CEO and MPC President Tirso G. Santillan, Jr., ““the Supreme Court’s decision en banc validates the agreement we reached with the city government.”
He narrated that “upon the COA’s approval of the sale, we were able to rehabilitate and operate the MPC Iligan diesel power plants just in time to deliver much needed power to Iligan City and other key areas in Mindanao during the May 2013 elections.”
Around that time, many areas in the Mindanao grid were being tormented with electricity service interruptions, hence, the Iligan diesel plant was able to shore up supply primarily for consumers in Iligan, Zamboanga City, General Santos, Pagadian, Butuan as well as other key cities.
The diesel generating assets were originally developed by the Alcantara group on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme in the 1990s – and its counterparty then was state-run National Power Corporation.
Then after the lapse of that arrangement, the plant was turned over to NPC; and afterwards, it was acquired by the host city government; which was also instrumental in the asset sale to the Alcantara-led CHC in 2012.
The Iligan diesel plant remains as ‘peaking power source’ in the portfolio of the Alcantara group, in addition to its coal fleets as well as its forthcoming renewable energy-generated capacities.
