DOJ grants TeaM Energy execs’ MR on Sual plunder case
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has granted the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by the executives of TeaM Energy Philippines for a review of the plunder case filed against them relating to the trading and sale of excess capacity of the 1,200-megawatt Sual coal-fired power facility in Pangasinan.
This is in connection to the plunder raps previously filed by San Miguel Energy Corporation against TeaM Energy executives Suguru Tsuzaki and Koichi Tamura along with Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) Officer-in-Charge Lourdes S. Alzona on the 200MW excess capacity of the Sual plant.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the energy arm of the San Miguel group has stipulated that it is “filing a motion for partial reconsideration of the (DOJ) resolution.”
SMEC has filed several suits against PSALM relating to the Independent Power Producer (IPPA) deals that it had entered with the state-run firm.
Aside from the Sual plant case, San Miguel subsidiary South Premiere Power Corporation (SPPC) also has a pending case with the regional trial court (RTC) on the former’s earlier move to preemptively terminate the IPPA deal on the privatized supply contract of the 1,200MW Ilian gas-fired power facility.
That step of the state-run company was stopped by a preliminary injunction order rendered by a Mandaluyong trial court back in 2015.
Relative to that particular dispute with PSALM, SPPC emphasized that it has been religiously settling its outstanding dues for the Ilijan plant.
The San Miguel subsidiary indicated that as of end-October this year, it already paid a total of US$4.8 billion to the state-run asset seller firm, stressing that such has been “contrary to PSALM’s allegation that SMC does not pay its obligations.”
By the end of the Ilijan plant’s IPP contract in 2022, total payments to its privatized capacity shall already reach US$7.68 billion or R384 billion.
SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang thus stressed that “this is a clear proof that we religiously pay PSALM and honor our contractual obligation under the Ilijan administration agreement.”
He expounded “the records will show that we have paid more than enough, and we religiously abide by our contractual obligation as administrator of Ilijan.”
SPPC is maintaining its position though that it cannot adhere to PSALM’s wish that the company should have opted to trade the Ilijan capacity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) on the questioned supply months of November and December, 2013 when prices then were at considerable spikes.
It said the state-run privatization firm’s “willful breach of contract was the result of a flawed interpretation of certain provisions related to its generation payments under the IPPA agreement.”