PSALM to review Diliman property dev’t plan
By Myrna M. Velasco – February 19, 2023, 8:30 PM
from Manila Bulletin
State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) will review the plan on the potential transformation of its Diliman property into a mixed-use complex that will cater to commercial establishments, office buildings and other premier development ventures.
According to PSALM President and CEO Dennis A. Dela Serna, the mandate of their principals is to look at business models akin to the developments pursued in the properties of Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) – like Fort Bonifacio and Clark; as well as those undertaken by the private sector, such as the UP-AyalaLand Techno Hub in Quezon City as potential template for the conversion of the government-owned Diliman property.
It was likewise noted that the metamorphosis of that real estate asset, which is in the National Power Corporation (NPC) compound, could be the next one to be managed by the company if it will be given life extension through a new law to be passed by Congress.
PSALM’s corporate life cycle will lapse in June 2026 as decreed under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), hence, a new legislation is needed so its existence can be legally justified for several years more – depending on the function that it will need to carry out next.
In the past Duterte administration, the Department of Finance (DOF) which is the lead agency manning the PSALM Board had already approved the privatization plan for the Diliman property – and one major requirement it imposed then for PSALM was to ensure its corporate existence to be extended first.
There is already a pending bill in Congress for that purpose, but the proposed measure would still need to go through the usual maze of legislative deliberations.
The development blueprint initially cast for the 5.195-hectare NPC property will be to re-cast it into a mixed-use commercial strip that shall be patterned to the business district metamorphosis of Fort Bonifacio Global City.
PSALM engaged in 2019 the consulting services of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to do the feasibility study for the privatization and development plan of the Diliman property.
Nevertheless, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, re-adjustments had to be incorporated in the earlier crafted privatization design for that real estate asset, hence, delay on project decisions had been incurred.
An updated PwC study was previously submitted to the finance department and that became the basis of it initially green-lighting the project.
In the current government leadership, a final decision has yet to be rendered if the property will be given final go-signal or if it has to be shelved.
