Manila, Philippines — While not letting the “accountable parties” off the hook, a review body centering on the operations of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) will explore ways on how to pare down the universal charge that will eventually be passed on to consumers via their electricity bills.

The formation of the technical working group was timed by Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras with the formal announcement by Malacañang of the appointment of investment banker Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr. as PSALM’s incoming president.

Ledesma, who earned his Economics degree from the University of the Philippines and took his Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the J. J. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at the Northwestern University in Illinois, counts roughly 20 years of experience in the banking industry. The latest post he held has been as Managing Director and Country Head of the Royal Bank of Canada, wherein he was based in Hong Kong.

The review group that will aid the new PSALM chief in scouring for a way out from PSALM’s current financial mess include Lasse Holopainen, former president of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), Engineer Rolando Bacani; Atty. Josefina Patricia M. Asirit who will provide legal direction in the process; and Finance Undersecretary John Philip “Sonny” Sevilla.

Holopainen, in particular, was tapped as the government intends to focus on the financial review of PSALM’s operations.

“One of the goals of the group will be to obtain the possible lowest universal charge that can be passed on to consumers among other things,“” a statement from the Department of Energy (DoE) has noted.

By unearthing misdemeanors at PSALM, it is hoped that the Filipino consumers can be freed from paying for costs resulting from transgressions of people who managed the company in recent years.

It has been recently exposed that despite the flow of proceeds from privatization of power assets and contracts, the liabilities of PSALM have escalated at a proportion higher than when National Power Corporation (NPC) was still a monopoly. And despite the mounting losses that the

company has been logging every year, PSALM had the temerity to reward themselves with hefty bonuses, which inopportunely will not be coming from other sources than the privatization money which could have been rightfully used to retire NPC’s debts.

The energy chief, for his part, noted that the review body will also institute measures in “enhancing existing policies and frameworks in the DoE including attached agencies thereat to achieve optimum efficiency in complying with its mandate.”

He further noted that in the past weeks, while the energy sector has been “figuring in issues relating to the imposition of an additional component in the universal charge and PSALM’s financial standing, the DoE has stated that the team will basically highlight its efficiencies and work towards the improved state of a liberalized power sector.”