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AFTER
being hounded by controversies before and during
auction, Transco concession winning bidder Monte Oro
Grid Resources Corp. (MOGRC) is now faced with another
arduous task—obtaining a concession from Congress, a
constitutional requirement.
Earlier,
another serious snag had been cleared away by the
Regional Trial Court in Makati when it threw out for
lack of merit the complaint filed by La Costa
Development Corp. Inc. demanding that PSALM be enjoined
from the bidding. The dismissal clears all existing
obstacles to the privatization of Transco.
It has
been a long while—years—before the Power Sector Assets
and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) successfully
bid out the 25-year concession to operate the National
Transmission Corp. (Transco), and while it was satisfied
with the result, PSALM felt it needed to say that, “At
the hearings for the franchise application, Congress is
expected to further scrutinize the MOGRC consortium’s
qualifications.”
But
Psalm president Jose Ibazeta said they will assist the
concessionaire in preparing and submitting an
application for a congressional franchise for the
operation of the public utility to ensure the
expeditious and smooth commencement of the concession
period.
MOGRC
consortium is made up of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp.,
Calaca High Power Corp., and State Grid of China. It
offered $3.95 billion, while the losing bidder—the
consortium of San Miguel Energy Corp., the
Netherlands-based TPG Aurora B.V., and Malaysia-based
TNB Prai Sdn Bhd offered $3.905 billion.
PSALM
said the winning consortium has one year to secure the
Transco franchise. Apparently to forestall any criticism
as had happened in other agencies’ bidding actions,
Psalm said it had already conducted a postqualification
survey after the bidding to validate the documents
submitted by the consortium.
For this
exercise, it coordinated with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, Bureau of Internal Revenue and
other relevant government agencies in the matter of the
Filipino consortium member-company.
A team
each from PSALM and Transco verified the documents
submitted by the SGCC, the foreign member of the
consortium, from relevant Chinese state agencies as well
as the SGCC offices in
Beijing,
China.
Now the
PSALM board is ready to approve the issuance of the
selection notice. The Direct Agreement, duly executed by
PSALM, will be delivered to MOGRC as the highest bidder.
The
Direct Agreement is part of the technical proposal
submitted and executed by the prequalified bidders,
which sets forth the conditions precedent to the award
of the concession and the execution and delivery of the
concession agreement and other final transaction
documents.
The
commencement date of the concession will be finalized
after Congress has granted a franchise to carry out the
concession and PSALM has secured the consent of
financial institutions and lenders of the Napocor
pertaining to the transfer of transmission assets and
all other assets and properties to Transco, as mandated
by Section 8 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira)
and the privatization of Transco by way of concession.
Transco
is mandated to revise annually the 10-year transmission
development plan to include development of the country’s
power sector and for the concessionaire to map out the
investments it will infuse to assure consumers of
reliable and efficient operation of the transmission
system. |
