Did ERC let Iemop collect fees from consumers? Solons ask

By Lenie Lectura -February 12, 2020
from Business Mirror

THE House Energy Committee wants to know from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) if it allowed Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (Iemop) to collect 1 centavo for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) from the consumers’ monthly electric bill.

Iemop is the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). Its predecessor, Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), used to collect this amount as per approval from the ERC in 2014.

“The 2014 ERC approval was given to PEMC and not for Iemop.  Can that approval given to a government-owned and -controlled corporation be transferred to a private corporation? That’s the number one issue for me. How can a private corporation collect that?” asked Nueva Ecija Rep. Rosanna Vergara, member of the House Energy committee.

In a recent public hearing, Iemop officials said PEMC sought approval in 2014 and that it filed its own application in January 2019.

“We would like to ask ERC. The only one that can answer this is ERC. Iemop applied in January 2019, but I don’t know if ERC has approved this, if this is still pending. We would like to know what happened. At the end of the day, we want to unburden the consumers,” said Vergara, who added that ERC officials would be summoned at the next hearing.

ERC did not reply when sought for comment.

Iemop, Vergara said, is supposed to be an independent market operator. However, she said, there could be conflict of interest because the president of IEMOP, Richard Nethercott, is married to an assistant secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) while another Iemop official, who has since resigned, is also married to the president of National Transmission Corp.

“The law says that if you are married to someone who is in the government that has control on the entity you are involved in, then that is a violation of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. I don’t know how they will explain that, but there’s probably conflict of interest there,” she said.

Nethercott admitted at the last hearing that he is married to a DOE official but claimed that there is no conflict of interest, saying a legal opinion from Iemop was sought on the matter.

He also admitted that National Transmission Corp. president Melvin Matibag was also married to one of the incorporators of Iemop but has since resigned.

However, Vergara said the relationships cast doubts on Iemop’s independence. “The independence is already subject to question, whatever you say,” Vergara had told Nethercott.