PSALM slates sale of idle power plants
By Danessa Rivera – July 3, 2019 – 12:00am
from The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines — State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has set the sale of two idle power plant properties to help reduce its liabilities.
The properties are located in Barangay Aplaya, Jasaan in Misamis Oriental and in Toledo City, Cebu.
The privatization of the land assets, set on Aug. 1, is on an “as is, where is” basis.
The land asset in Aplaya, Misamis Oriental consists of 49 lots with a total area of about 155,504 square meters. It has a minimum bid price of P567.63 million.
Meanwhile, the land asset in Toledo City, Cebu consists of 21 lots with a total area of about 129,589 square meters with a minimum bid price of P171.47 million.
PSALM said the land assets used to be the location of the dismantled Aplaya diesel power plant and the Cebu diesel power plant.
In 2009, PSALM privatized the power plant structures based on their scrap value and are now either on ground zero or with minimal structures left.
“These properties could not immediately be privatized because there were issues with the titles. But some titles got fixed already and we were able to get third party appraisals for them early this year,” PSALM president and CEO Irene Joy Besido-Garcia said in a text message yesterday.
“Thus, we were able to secure board clearance to go ahead and privatize them,” she said.
PSALM is the agency mandated by Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 to handle the sale of the remaining state-power assets and the financial obligations of National Power Corp. (Napocor).
It trims debts through the privatization of government-owned assets and its effective implementation of its liability management program.
PSALM’s remaining generating assets include the Malaya Thermal Power Plant in Rizal, the Agus I, II, IV to VII and Pulangi Hydroelectric Power Plants in Mindanao, the Mindanao Coal-Fired Power Plant and some real estate properties.
As of the end of May, the state-run firm still had P433.7 billion remaining payables. PSALM has seven years left in its corporate life which ends in 2026.
