A TOP official of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said over the weekend that the government owes some former employees of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) about P36 billion, an amount that will be eventually passed on to end-consumers.
“Based on our list, we recalculated it. It was substantially lower than the P60 billion they were originally asking,” PSALM President Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said.
PSALM has yet to release its official recalculated figures but Ledesma believes that “it should be slightly more than half of it. Personally, it should be P35 billion to P36 billion only.”
PSALM has been tasked to sell the state-owned power assets of the Napocor. It also collects and administers the Universal Charge (UC) for Missionary Electrification, which is the source of funds of the Napocor for its operations in off-grid areas.
Ledesma said that payment due will be sourced from the UC. This means that consumers are going to pay for the back wages and wage adjustments that Napocor owed to its former workers.
“The impact on electricity bills is estimated at P0.13 per kilowatt-hour over a period of 10 years,” added the PSALM chief.
Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla agreed that consumer would have to shoulder the expense. “Even if PSALM will borrow to pay off its dues, the amount will form part of the liability of the Napocor, and that will be charged to the people in the form of Universal Charge,” Petilla said.
The amount represents settlement claims of the Napocor’s Drivers and Mechanics Association (Dama) who were terminated in 2003. They contested the retrenchment and filed a case.
Napocor President Ma. Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita had explained that the case stemmed from the restructuring of Napocor.
“It started with restructuring of the electricity industry and the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act [Epira] in 2001,” she said.
Sta. Rita explained that as part of the implementation of Epira, Napocor retrenched thousands of employees who were paid their separation benefits. The majority of them were rehired by Napocor, National Transmission Co. and the PSALM.
Employees who were not rehired included members of the Dama who contested and filed a case before the court, questioning the Napocor board’s resolutions signed only by three duly constituted directors and the rest by their respective official alternates, she said.
In 2006 the Supreme Court (SC) ruled in favor of the more than 8,000 employees and upheld their claim of damages totaling to P34.7 billion in back wages and wage adjustments. A notice of garnishment on Napocor’s assets was also issued.
This amount, however, swelled to P60.2 billion in 2014 as computed by the ex-officio sheriff of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City. In addition to the claim is the P1.8-billion sheriff’s fee.
However, the SC lifted the garnishment but Napocor, through PSALM, would still have to settle the damages through other means.
The Napocor president said her office would still have to verify the total number of employees entitled to receive payment.
“Napocor and PSALM, likewise, seek to clarify the amount of back wages and wage adjustments since Napocor’s computation, considering already the interest rate and the Commission on Audit’s finding, is much lesser than P60.2 billion,” Sta. Rita said.