President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is hoping that the Court of Appeals (CA) will reconsider its issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), suspending the implementation of the South Premier Power Corp. (SPPC) Power Supply Agreement (PSA) with the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Marcos said this after the CA's Fourteenth Division issued the TRO in favor of SPPC, a San Miguel subsidiary, with a 60-day effectivity from service on the respondents.
In a statement over the weekend, the President raised the possible adverse effects of the CA's move to issue the TRO.
"The implementation of the PSA between Meralco and San Miguel, it is unfortunate that this has happened; it will cause further dislocations and possible price increase for power," Marcos said, noting the TRO is against the PSA.
"We hope that the CA will reconsider. And include in their deliberations the extremely deleterious effect this will have on power prices for ordinary Filipinos," he added.
The SPPC filed a petition hoping the CA will grant the rate petition "without prejudice to any further requests for price adjustments for June 2022 onwards."
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) denied the plea for the price increase since the regulatory body ruled that the agreed price in the PSA is fixed.
It furthered that the grounds for the increase cited by SPPC and Meralco were not among the exceptions that would allow for price adjustment.
The ERC said the temporary suspension's instantaneous effect on the PSA implementation could expose approximately 7.5 million registered Meralco consumers in Metro Manila and other areas in Central Luzon and Calabarzon to higher electricity prices without preparation, usually observed in case of PSA termination.
According to the regulatory body, the fixed price PSA of Meralco with SPPC covers 670MW of supply, which, along with the other fixed price PSAs, has shielded Meralco consumers for the past several months from the volatility of costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and automatic fuel pass-through PSAs.
If the PSAs are immediately suspended, the ERC said the required proper observance of the terms of the PSA, including the contractually-agreed process of termination, will be set aside.