The prospective bidders in the 246-megawatt Angat hydroelectric power plant pressed seller Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) to have the water protocol in place way ahead of the auction date so they can have enough time to review the parameters that would have material impact on their bids.

The water protocol had been among the key issues raised by prospective buyers at the pre-bid conference of the plant’s privatization held on February 17. PSALM, in a press statement, indicated that around 12 interested investor-groups attended the pre-bid exercise.

PSALM acting vice president for asset management Conrad S. Tolentino said the legal standing of the water protocol to-date is: “it’s not yet final or in place” and the draft document is still subject to comments and inputs by relevant government agencies and stakeholders, and for finalization by the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.

He just then assured stakeholders, like the concessionaires of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), that whatever the final form of the water protocol be, “all applicable laws and policies will be respected by the (winning) bidder.”

In a related development, Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes was at the center of it all and has drawn yet another flak for the impending water crisis in Metro Manila allegedly for his imprimatur in running the 246-megawatt Angat hydropower plant to augment power supply despite declining water elevation.

Consumer and Oil Price Watch chair Raul T. Concepcion pointed the energy chief’s alleged culpability, after expressing “grave concern that we will have a drinking water shortage” in the areas served by concessionaires Manila Water Company and Maynilad Water Services Inc.

He stressed that Reyes, who also sits as vice chairman of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), “authorized the use of Angat dam to generate power in the absence of flow meters to measure its hourly releases.”

The Angat reservoir is the major source of water supply for Manila Manila, in tandem with that of Umiray River Basin, hence, water concessionaires Manila Water Co. (MWC) and Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI) have aired that if concerns on the water protocol have not been properly addressed, it might adversely affect drinking water for Metro Manila residents.

In an interview, Aboitiz Power Corporation chief executive officer Erramon I. Aboitiz said “clearly, the water protocol has to be there,” noting that all key parameters including the rule curve must be set so the investors can ascertain what they have been bidding for.

“The rules have to be agreed…we, as power producers and prospective bidders want the rules to be agreed beforehand. Because we don’t want to buy the asset and then there’s a risk that the rules will change. The water protocol has to be there,” he stressed.

Aboitiz added “we all know that drinking water for Metro Manila should be given priority – it will be given priority and it has to be. Let private sector, let the new buyer operate within those parameters… we don’t want to do it at the cost of Metro Manila drinking water, no question about it.”