The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
First it was Chairman Monalisa Dimalanta of the Energy Regulatory Commission that was suspended for six months by the Ombudsman for gross misconduct, abuse of authority, neglect of duty and actions against public interest.
A few days later, another appointee of former President Rodrigo Duterte– Commissioner Guy Marko Romeo Fuentes is also being eyed for suspension by the Ombudsman for continuing to practice at his CPA firm in Davao, Bilyonaryo (which was the first to report on Dimalanta’s suspension) reported.
Fuentes, a Davao-based accountant, faces accusations from the Power for People Coalition (P4P) for allegedly continuing his role as senior partner at his CPA firm, Fuentes and Co., while serving at the ERC.
The Ombudsman found strong evidence supporting her guilt, Bilyonaryo claimed.
Dimalanta’s suspension stemmed from a complaint by the National Association of Consumers for Reforms Inc. (Nasecore), which accused her of delaying proceedings against Meralco for 609 days.
Her inaction allegedly stalled the recalculation of Meralco’s rates, affecting public protection and undermining ERC’s regulatory goals.
Dimalanta, a former legal counsel for Aboitiz Power, was the sole authority responsible for issuing the pre-trial order, making her accountable for the delay in the proceedings. She is exploring her legal options.
Her suspension sent shockwaves to those in the energy sector, with tycoon Isidro Consunji, chair of DMCI Holdings, questioning the “lightning speed (of her suspension), inevitably raising eyebrows,” reported BizBuzz of the Inquirer.
Consunji voiced his reactions to reporters at the sideline of an event that the case filed by the consumer group is “very flimsy. So many people get away with so many things… worse things,”
“Nagulat talaga ako dun tsaka ang bilis (I was caught by surprise. And it happened so quickly,” the tycoon added.
Amid the ERC’s alleged failure to recalculate Meralco’s rates, the Ombudsman slapped Dimalanta with a six-month preventive suspension.
In a quick interview earlier this week, Dimalanta told Inquirer that “this case is one of first impression— it may look like a simple case of delayed action but there is more to it than that.”
Dimalanta even reminded consumers and stakeholders in the sector to “remain vigilant and put a close watch on the decisions, actions of the commission.
But while the housecleaning is going on at ERC, Meralco has been having a heyday raising electricity rates since June.
For the current month alone, it would be raising our electricity bills again– blaming it on higher transmission costs– by P0.1543 per kilowatt hour bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P11.7882 per kWh in September from P11.6339 per kWh in August, reported GMA Integrated News.
The upward adjustment translates to an increment of P31 in the total bill of a typical customer consuming 200 kWh.The power distributor attributed the increase in its household electricity rate to the P0.2913 per kWh increase in the transmission charge for residential customers “due to higher ancillary service charges following the resumption of commercial operations of the Reserve Market on August 5, 2024.
“Total ancillary service charges from the Reserve Market were double the charges from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) Ancillary Service Procurement Agreements (ASPAs),” Meralco said.
In August Meralco also raised electricity rates, tracing this to the bigger share of ancillary service charges to National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ transmission rate, which rose to more than 50 percent, it said.
The power distributor said the decrease in generation charge was primarily driven by the peso’s appreciation to its strongest level since December 2023, which affected 50% of PSA costs and 97% of IPP costs which were dollar-denominated. “This led to the P0.2371 per kWh and P0.0529 per kWh reductions in PSA and IPP charges, respectively,” Meralco said.