The government, hard-pressed for funds to finance the 2020 national budget, has deemed it a priority to collect the billions of pesos worth of overdue payments which power companies and electric cooperatives owe the government.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said that several big companies owed the state-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. the amount of P95.42-billion.
Panelo reiterated that there will be “no sacred cows” in government.
The government will run after them whether they are powerful people or not, whether they are close to the President or not,” Panelo said on dzIQ.
PSALM is the agency tasked by Congress under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 to sell the assets of the defunct agency.
PSALM vowed to continue its collection efforts to go after power companies with delinquent accounts totaling P33.62 billion.
If these debts remain unpaid, PSALM will incur an annual borrowing cost of about P1.7 billion a year.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Jose Calida is given free hand to attend congressional hearings on the issue.
Earlier, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and Committee on Public Accounts ordered Calida to testify at the joint hearing on March 11 after failing to show up at the past hearings in February.
Calida was asked to provide the House panels with “pertinent documents,” including his office’s “Motion for Leave to Intervene,” in connection with the uncollected P14.97 billion and P315.42 million from the Manila Electric Co. and First Gen Hydro Power Corp.
There’s nothing wrong with attending a hearing,” Panelo said.
Palace will not stop Calida from attending the legislative investigation.
With the set expiration of PSALM’s corporate life by 2026, these uncollected receivables of the national government could be “ultimately passed on to the consumers.