PSALM PURSUES COLLECTION OF P671M

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has sent out final letters of demand for payment to two firms with long overdue obligations of at least P671.16 million combined.

In the final demand letters sent by PSALM President-CEO Irene Besido Garcia and acting Vice President for Finance Manuel Marcos Villalon II, both firms were given 7 calendar days from receipt of the demand letters to pay their arrears or face legal action.

These formal and final demand letters were sent to First Bay Power Corp. (FBPC) with long overdue financial obligations to PSALM amounting to P35.15 million, and Abra Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ABRECO) with arrears of P599.13 million on its power account and another P36.89 million in unremitted Universal Charge (UC) collections plus all other unremitted UC collections for the months not covered by its submitted UC reports.

The separate final demand letters to FBPC and ABRECO were both dated August 24, 2020.

Garcia and Villalon told the two firms in the letters that PSALM “shall be constrained to avail of all appropriate legal remedies to protect PSALM and the Government’s interest, including the filing of criminal, civil and administrative cases” against them “as well as against your officers and directors for the extreme prejudice you have caused PSALM and the Philippine government.”

Copies of the separate final demand letters were furnished Finance Secretary and PSALM chairman Carlos Dominguez III and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.

The demand letter to ABRECO was addressed to Victor Baula, its acting general manager, while the one sent to FBPC was addressed to its president, Cesar Reyes, and its treasurer, Nenita Macapinlac.

In the case of ABRECO, its overdue power account as of July 31, 2020 covered a period of 10 years, consisting of restructured account (RA), interest and penalty, value-added tax (VAT) and ERC-approved power rate adjustments.

According to Garcia, PSALM previously sent several written demand letters to ABRECO asking for the settlement of its outstanding power account obligations, along with its Statements of Accounts (SOAs).

“However, up to this date, ABRECO continues to ignore the demand letters,” she said.

ABRECO committed to propose a payment option for its outstanding power account dues on Dec. 9 last year and earlier entered into successive restructuring agreements with PSALM, only to breach all of them.

Despite ABRECO’s blatant disregard of its commitment to settle its arrears, PSALM sent to it a copy of a new restructuring agreement last Dec. 20, 2019, but this was also ignored by the power cooperative.