IEMOP ready for Pacquiao

The octuple boxing champion is the acting PDP-Laban President, but he does not seem to have a big enough clout to sway party decisions, and this may tell on his plan to lead the party as its presidential candidate on the 9 May 2022 national elections

Officials of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) on Tuesday expressed willingness to face Senator Manny

Pacquiao to clear his allegations of malfeasance against the sole electricity stock market operator in the country.

Pacquiao’s charges are believed to have stemmed from his rivalry with Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi, the PDP-Laban vice-chair who has gained leadership of the party with blessings from party chair President Rodrigo Duterte.

The octuple boxing champion is the acting PDP-Laban President, but he does not seem to have a big enough clout to sway party decisions, and this may tell on his plan to lead the party as its presidential candidate on the 9 May 2022 national elections.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Tribune digital show “Straight Talk,” IEMOP spokesperson Andrea Mae Caguete aired a wish to talk to Pacquiao to set things straight about their presence in the country’s energy industry.

“On our side, we want to have a conversation and a discussion with the Senator so we can explain what the IEMOP does and what the WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) is,” she said.

“And also, if he wants proof or evidence with regard to our legality, we can show it to him so that he would see clearly our role in the power industry,” Caguete stated.

Last 2 July, Pacquiao alleged IEMOP of receiving half-a-cent for every kilowatt-hour paid by every Filipino consumer when it entered the energy industry as a sole electricity market operator in the country — a small company that turned into a multi-billion peso firm.

Misinformed

Caguete said that it seems Pacquiao was misinformed regarding IEMOP’s presence as a market operator.

“Based on the allegations that we heard from the press conference, we think there is misconception and misinformation on the side of the Senator regarding IEMOP,” she added.

IEMOP operates WESM, a wholesale electricity spot market in which the commodity is electricity that they oversee.

“For example, if a generator has a contract with the customer, we see it in the market. But the settlement is outside the market. We only do the facilitation of the trading in the market,” she said.

On our side, we want to have a conversation and a discussion with the Senator so we can explain what the IEMOP does and what the WESM is.

“But the beauty of it that is that people can see the prices in the market and the actual conditions in the market and we are very transparent and it adds also to the benefits to the public, to the legislators to make them see the market conditions,” Caguete stated.

Legal, binding

Meanwhile, Energy Assistant Secretary Gerardo D. Erguiza Jr., in a separate interview over “Straight Talk”, stressed that the half-a-cent fee for every kilowatt-hour paid by Filipino consumers to IEMOP is legal and binding.

“It’s true that there is a fee. However, let me just make it very clear that all these are computed, following a price methodology. It is under the law. The independent market operator was formed to establish, pursuant to a mandate by the EPIRA or the energy, power reform, electric power reform resource as in 2001,” Erguiza said.

And also, if he wants proof or evidence with regard to our legality, we can show it to him so that he would see clearly our role in the power industry.

He said that while it could have been implemented in the past, it was only under Cusi’s leadership that it was realized.

“Secretary Cusi said that there’s something that was neglected or remains unimplemented. Under the law, it has been 17 years already at the time in 2018 when the circular was issued, and it was high time we have to form it as mandated by the law — the independent market operator. In this law, the IMO (independent market operator) is going to be formed as mandated. It is also incorporated in the provision that there is a price methodology,” he explained.

Erguiza maintained that they have a formula that was set by the law, being summed and studied by the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) and implemented based on the standards that were set.

“DoE just makes the policy, but with respect to these rates, it is the ERC approving it. But I believe that based on the standard, the objective formula that the ERC has said and as directed by the law. I think we don’t have any problem with the rate. As a matter of fact, let me add that when the IEMOP or IMO was created or formed, the rates went lower than before it was created,” Erguiza stated.

Erguiza also noted that tweaking the half-centavo fee needs legislation in order for rates to be adjusted.