The Ombudsman’s six-month suspension order against Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairman and chief executive Monalisa Dimalanta may create further delays in new power supply agreements and affect consumers’ power bills.
Dimalanta also said the ERC had yet to act on pending power supply agreements of electric cooperatives which have huge exposure to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the trading floor of electricity where prices are more volatile.
“But with my suspension, we cannot act on that. So this means that as long as the action of the commission is stalled, they [electric cooperatives] will not have a PSA,” Dimalanta said during the Pandesal Forum at the 85 year-old Kamuning Bakery Café in Quezon City.
Dimalanta also said the Office of the Ombudsman’s grounds for her suspension should be considered moot, as the five-man collegial body already decided on the matter raised in the complaint against her.
The Ombudsman meted a temporary suspension against Dimalanta for six months for alleged grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority and conduct prejudicial to public service in relation to a complaint filed by consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) on delays in the rate reset of distribution utility Manila Electric Co.
Dimalanta said the ERC had decided to dismiss Meralco’s rate application and consider the fifth regulatory period as a lapsed until the end of the regulatory period.
She said the five-man ERC commission voted 3-2 on Aug. 21, 2024, which was before the Ombudsman’s issued order dated Aug. 27, 2024. Dimalanta and ERC commissioner Catherine Maceda dissented against the decision, saying there should be a proper reset for the fifth regulatory period, covering 2022 to 2026.
“My point was it is the job of the regulator to do the reset. There hasn’t been a reset in the last 10 years, so why should we let go of our job to reset for a period that is yet to lapse,” Dimalanta said.
Dimalanta said the ERC could still improve measures for transparency in dealing with pending cases. “For instance, after each commission meeting, we can already post or publish our action taken on each agenda item so that stakeholders will already know the movement in their cases even before the actual ruling is issued. This is the same as what the Supreme Court is doing now in many of their cases,” she said.
