THE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM) is liable to the Southern Philippines Power Corp (SPPC) for contractual obligations incurred by the National Power Corp (Napocor) amounting to $5.774 million for the US dollar fee payment portion and P68.644 million for the peso-denominated portion.
This was the decision rendered by the Commission on Audit (COA) in granting the money claim petition filed by the SPPC for unpaid fees arising from contracted capacity of its 50 MW bunker-fueled power plant in General Santos City for 2005 to 2010.
In the four-page decision signed by COA chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba and commissioners Roland Café Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana, the Commission Proper noted that the power firm’s claim had already been decided by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2013.
While the Napocor appealed, the ERC’s ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeals in 2015 and by the Supreme Court in 2016.
With the claim itself already decided, the sole remaining issue submitted for the COA to resolve was whether PSALM is solidarily liable with the Napocor for the payment of the money claim.
It was SPPC’s contention that PSALM is liable for the satisfaction of Napocor’s obligations having taken over ownership of the latter’s existing generation assets, liabilities, power contracts, real estate and other disposable assets under RA 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
The COA CP sustained this position.
“This Commission rules that PSALM is solidarily liable with NPC to SPPC. As can be gleaned above, PSALM assumed all of NPC’s liabilities. Pursuant to Section 49 of the EPIRA, PSALM assumed all of NPC’s liabilities existing at the time of PSALM’s creation,” the COA declared.
