Naga Mayor Wants New Power Plant

● Mayor clarified he is neutral between SPC and TVPI and he is merely echoing the sentiments of his constituency.

Naga City, Cebu- Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong led a rally last week which calls for the building of a new power plant in his area.

Chiong’s action came as the SPC Power Corporation and Thermal Power Visayas Inc. (TPVI) is tied in a legal imbroglio regarding the recent Asset Purchase Agreement covering the 153.1 MW Naga power facility which was inked with the state owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM).

TVPI won the bidding last March but was technically out-bidded by SPC as it opted to exercise its “right to top” clause of an earlier Land Lease Agreement for the Naga Land Based Gas Turbine Power Plant (LLA-LBGT) which is inside the facility.

SPC invoked section 3.02 (a) of the LLA-LBGT where the right to top was stipulated.

“In case PSALM sells or leases any property in the vicinity of the Leased Premises, SPC shall have the right to top the winning bid by five percent”, which in effect was exercised after wiring the amount of P1.143 billion, higher than five percent of the winning bid price of TVPI which was only P1.088 billion.

The Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) already signed an opinion that the right to top clause could not go beyond the turbine plant but another opinion has earlier been sought also by Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla from the Department of Justice to solve the impasse.

Another legal move was initiated by Sen. Serge Osmena who petitioned the Supreme Court to prohibit SPC in exercising its right to top and declared it void and further asked the high court to to issue a permanent injunction against PSALM.

Asked regarding the impending legal issues, Mayor Chiong clarified he is neutral between SPC and TVPI and he is merely echoing the sentiments of his constituency, a mid-southern city in Cebu province which has a population of at least 110,000.

“We are open to talks kun unsaon sa pagpaagi pero ang ato lang gusto makita ang sentimento sa taga Naga nga unya bag-o gyud ang planta. We do not want to interfere or intervene kun unsay ilang bangi pero ang amo lang pasiuna ang sentimento nga bisan kinsa ang makadaug dili musugot ang Naga nga ayum-ayumon lang ang karaan nga planta,” Chiong told reporters in an impromptu interview in the rally site which was just outside the SPC power plant complex in barangay (village) Colon.

Naga City councilor Elmer Lapitan revealed the city council is supportive of the move of Mayor Chiong, adding, it wanted a power producing facility which will not pose as health hazard to the residents.

“What we want is a facility that will not be hazardous, one that is environment friendly”” Lapitan, the chairman of the committee on health of the city council told Metrocebu News in Cebuano.

The city’s public information officer Gary Cabotaje on the other hand said that the officials of barangay North Poblacion, Tangke and Colon has passed separate resolutions that also supports the call of Mayor Chiong.

SPC officials, Placido Jandoc and Victorio Naval, both aired their approval of building a new power plant but quickly pointed the top management will announce soon their official stand on the call of the Naga City Mayor.

Jandoc, the plant manager admitted that the generating capacities of the plants has never been maximized and that constructing a new plant is a better option.

The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SPC Dennis Villareal while its Chairman of the Board and Treasurer is Alfredo “Atom” Henares.

Naval meanwhile pointed out that their nearby facility, the KEPCO-SPC Power Corpo. (KSPC) is adopting a Circulating Fluidize Bed (CFB) Combustion process, a proven environmentally safe technology which could be replicated if they will build a new plant. Naval is the SPC representative in KSPC which is a joint venture business with the Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO).

The two Cebu based officials of SPC obliged to a request of reporters to air their side after Chiong led rally where it showed a huge tarpaulin expressing their demand for building a new power plant to Pres. Benigno Aquino III and PSALM.

Pres. Aquino himself was the guest of honor and speaker during the inauguration of the KSPC plant in 2011.

The occasion then in June 27, 2011 fanned rumors that the bachelor President and popular Korean TV host Grace Lee were an item after they first met during the event.

“Kaya pag inimbita ho ako sa Cebu, hindi ho mahirap talagang maimbita dito. Pati iyong bisita nating si Ms. Gracie, kala ko tuloy, Pinay. Hindi nga pala; Korean—pati ang mga Korean na dumarating, talagang gwapa lahat. Kailangan yatang buhayin iyong Malacanang Sugbu! Baka dito na rin ho tayo magkatuluyan,” Pres. Aquino said in his speech which has a transcript in the Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines.

According to Mayor Chiong, SPC Power Corp and KSPC has contributed a sizable amount of the city’s taxes where KSPC has remitted at least P176 million of the city’s budget annually.

PSALM first engaged in a Rehabilitation, Operation, Maintenance and Management (ROMM) with the then Salcon and later Operation and Maintenance Service Contract (OMSC) with SPC Power Corporation.

SPC Power Corporation counts several subsidiaries. It is running the SPC Island Power Corporation in Panay and is operating the 650- Malaya megawatt thermal power plant in Rizal. Apart from the KEPCO-SPC Power Corp, it also has equities in Mactan Electric Company, Inc. TVPI meanwhile is a subsidiary of the Aboitiz group where incidentally, it is also the majority stock holder of the Visayan Electric Company (VECO), the exclusive power distribution firm in Cebu City and its suburbs.