With her own seven-year term cut short, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chair Monalisa Dimalanta thinks the fixed term of the regulator’s commissioners should be reassessed especially if it’s not being respected anyway.
“The nature of a fixed term, let’s revisit. Because in the history of ERC, when was it respected?” Dimalanta said during a chance interview with reporters on Monday, July 21. This was on the sidelines of the First Philippine Industrial Park’s (FPIP) transition into renewable energy event.
Dimalanta has been pretty vocal about this term issue that’s why she didn’t submit her courtesy resignation during Marcos’ Cabinet shakeup back in May. She hinted that politics was definitely involved in her early exit.
In 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Dimalanta to the post that she was supposed to keep till 2029.
The Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) mandates a fixed term of seven years for the ERC chairperson and other commissioners. Given this, Cabinet reshuffles should technically not be applicable to Dimalanta. Thus, instead of submitting a courtesy resignation, she submitted an irrevocable resignation instead.
A courtesy resignation, according to her, defeats the purpose of serving a fixed term in the first place, and she didn’t want to set a precedent for officials in similar positions.
Why 7 years?
A seven-year term is necessary because power supply agreements can outlast a president’s stay in office.
“…like anything in the power sector, things require time and decisions transcend administrations. Imagine if it were dependent on the administration. You approve power supply agreements that [last] 10 to 15 years — it even used to be 25 years before,” Dimalanta said in a mix of English and Filipino.
In Monday’s interview with reporters, Dimalanta said only one ERC chair has ever served a full seven-year term: Arroyo appointee Zenaida Ducut.
Despite being linked to the pork barrel scam and the ERC’s suspicious approval of a huge power rate hike imposed by the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), Ducut was allowed to keep her post. Then-president Benigno Aquino III respected the fixed term of the ERC chair. (READ: Palace won’t push Ducut to resign)
FPIP’s event celebrating its transition to renewables under the Retail Aggregation Program (RAP) was one of Dimalanta’s final appearances as ERC chief. She was Marcos’ second energy sector appointee to come from AboitizPower; former DOE chief now Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla also served as the company’s independent director.
Despite consumers’ rights groups initial doubts about her, they acknowledged that Dimalanta managed to implement pro-consumer reforms. These include the expansion of RAP, which allows multiple consumers with a monthly consumption of at least 500 kilowatts to select their preferred power supplier and benefit from lower rates and better service.
Dimalanta also spearheaded a fuel cost audit of a power firm’s pass-through charges, which revealed that many electric cooperatives failed to demand or verify fuel invoices from power generators. This resulted in unnecessary costs that were passed on to the consumer.
But Dimalanta’s tenure did not come without controversy. The Ombudsman ordered her preventive suspension in 2024 over a complaint of grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, and conduct prejudicial to public service.
Anti-brownout advocate National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms had accused Dimalanta of failing to recalculate Meralco’s rates, an act that was allegedly prejudicial to the interest of the public.
Malacañang reinstated Dimalanta to the energy regulator’s top post in October 2024 after the Ombudsman lifted her preventive suspension. She steps down on Friday, August 8, and will be succeeded by Francis Saturnino Juan. – Rappler.com