Lotilla hopes for resolution of Dimalanta case
By Ed Paolo Salting – September 16, 2024
from The Manila Times
ENERGY Secretary Raphael Lotilla hopes the government will resolve, at the soonest possible time, issues concerning the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), specifically the suspension of its chairman and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta.
The longer the issue persists, Lotilla pointed out, the more delays it will cause to various court decisions, as well as ERC’s initiatives such as the Green Energy Auction program, which facilitates contracting by qualified suppliers with qualified customers through a competitive process or auction.
“We have worked hard with chair Mona Dimalanta to introduce changes that would facilitate the approvals of projects,” Lotilla said in a recent chance interview. “Once more, I’m hopeful this can be addressed and resolved so we’ll continue to move forward.”
The Office of the Ombudsman, in a letter dated August 29 but released to media only on September 5, ordered a six-month preventive suspension of Dimalanta due to alleged “grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service which may warrant her removal from the service.”
The allegations arose from a case filed by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. (Nasecore) over the ERC’s failure “to recalculate the rate of Meralco that protects the interest of the public.”
“Overall, we look forward to this [case] being resolved immediately… We need the ERC on board [regarding] conventional, renewable or new sources of energy… Right now we are facing a number of decisions that have to be made by them,” Lotilla explained.
