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A MEMBER
of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) on
Thursday said that Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp., which
won the 25-year National Transmission Co. (Transco)
concession, should not be allowed to sell shares to any
of the losing bidders in case it makes an initial public
offer to raise fresh funds.
PDP-Laban Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. of
Makati
said: “If the losing bidders are allowed to buy into
Monte Oro, that would raise suspicion that there was
collusion in the Transco deal.”
This
developed as Sen. Miriam Santiago, JCPC cochairman,
moved to cite Transco president Arthur Aguilar in
contempt for snubbing Thursday’s commission hearing to
review the Transco deal.
“He
[Aguilar] must explain to the JCPC because we are not
accepting his excuse for not coming to the hearing,”
Santiago
said.
Aguilar
claimed he could not attend the hearing because he was
presiding over a meeting of regional heads of Transco.
During
the same hearing, Power Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corp. (Psalm) president Jose Ibazeta
confirmed before the JCPC that Monte Oro consortium
would still need to get a separate franchise
from Congress to operate the government’s electric grid
monopoly.
“It
cannot operate the [Transco] system before it gets the
congressional franchise,” Ibazeta told the JCPC hearing,
referring to the consortium of Monte Oro, Calaca High
Power Corp. and State Grid of China, which submitted a
winning bid of $3.95 billion for the government-owned
electric grid.
Ibazeta
clarified, however, that the $3.95-billion bid would not
be paid to the government until Monte Oro gets a
franchise from Congress. “Nothing is actually paid until
the franchise is given,” he said.
Sen.
Joker Arroyo noted that if Congress takes time to
approve a new franchise for the Transco winning bidder,
Monte Oro would then be under no obligation to pay the
government since it cannot operate the grid monopoly.
Ibazeta
admitted that Monte Oro has “the option to walk away”
from the deal.
For his
part, Locsin said the planned IPO for the Transco
concession could be a “backdoor” ploy to have the losing
bidders come in; hence, his condition to bar the sale of
any shares to any of the losers.
“It
could be a ploy to let losing bidders join the
concession so that everybody is happy,” Locsin added.
Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez, meanwhile, said he sees no
irregularity with the bidding process conducted by Psalm
on Wednesday for Transco’s privatization.
In an
interview, Gonzalez brushed off insinuations that the
process was rigged in favor of the Monte Oro-led
Chinese-Filipino consortium.
The
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) earlier said that
Walter Brown of Monte Oro is reportedly affiliated with
Diosdado “Buboy” Macapagal Jr., the brother of President
Arroyo.
“It was
the corporation that participated, the personality of
the corporation is different from the individuals.
Assuming he is involved, he is a legitimate businessman.
He is just part of the group that bidded. Does it mean
that just because he [Diosdado Jr.] is there, you have
to disqualify the bid which is the highest bid?”
Gonzalez told reporters.
He said
any accusation the process was rigged must be
substantiated, even as he said the government is ready
to answer any case filed in relation to the bidding.
“What is
important there is that the Psalm Board provided for a
floor price, a minimum, but the offered bid of the
winning bidder was very, very much more. So how could
that be lutong makaw [rigged bidding]? If that
was lutong makaw, they will not offer such price
because they would win anyway,” Gonzalez said.
The
government, he stressed, cannot just nullify the bidding
on mere speculation the process was rigged, as this
might draw a lawsuit.
“Why
will you cancel a winning bid unless you have a good
reason? You could be sued,” the Justice secretary said.
Monte
Oro consortium beat the consortium of San Miguel Energy
Corp., the Netherlands-based TPG Aurora BV and
Malaysia-based TNB Prai Sdn. Bhd. (With J. San Juan) |
