TO ensure electricity consumers pay “fair and reasonable” power rates, the Senate is poised to pass a law compelling the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to open to the public rate-setting deliberations that ERC commissioners usually hold behind closed doors.
In filing Senate Bill (SB) 1490, Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian also proposed live Internet streaming of the hearings on rate adjustments in the ERC web site. Once enacted into law, it will, likewise, mandate transcript of stenographic notes and minutes of the meeting be made available to the public within one week from the date of the ERC hearing.
Gatchalian’s bill, however, acknowledged the need to “protect trade secrets and competitively sensitive information that are strictly confidential in nature” and included a provision the bill that allows ERC to conduct executive sessions “upon a majority vote” of the commission after the reason for such confidentiality is identified in an open meeting.
The senator added that Executive sessions will, likewise, be allowed to “discuss the disciplining or dismissal of complaints or charges brought against a public officer, employee or staff of ERC.”
“These reforms will give life to the constitutional rights of our citizens to have access to public information, which directly affects the power costs they see in their monthly electricity bills. It’s like a mini-FOI [freedom of information] bill, which specifically targets the energy-regulation sector,” he said.
Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy, added he is keen on getting the ERC to “open its deliberations to the general public to guarantee that consumers get fair and reasonable power rates.”
To be known as the ERC Governance Act of 2017, he said the proposed law aims to ensure transparency and greater accountability in the regulation of the distribution and transmission sector of the country’s power industry.
He pointed out in the bill that “the ERC, as the regulator, has a definitive role in safeguarding the interests of the public”, and should, therefore, “provide greater confidence that regulatory decisions are made on an objective, impartial and consistent basis, without conflict of interest, bias or improper influence.”
According to Gatchalian, SB 1490 was also crafted to better enhance ERC’s independence and increase public accountability, as it “seeks to overhaul the governance structure of the ERC in a bid to equally distribute its regulatory powers and management functions among its officers.”
To carry it out, the senator added a provision stripping the chairman of “control over the management of the ERC, and delegates his role as CEO to the executive director, who shall be appointed by the commission, acting collectively.”
He said the commission, which includes the chairman and four commissioners, shall serve as the ERC’s decision-making authority, and act as arbitrators for petitions, issues or matters related to the regulation of the distribution and transmission sector, such as, but not limited to, applications for power-rate adjustments.
“The executive director, on the other hand, will serve as the ‘manager’ of the regulating body and lead the management of the daily operations of the ERC, assume full responsibility for the overall supervision and control of all divisions, units and services of the ERC, and initiate investigations and recommend administrative sanctions against erring employees, among others,” the senator added.
“Recent controversies surrounding the ERC have shown the need to overhaul its organizational structure to provide greater checks and balances in the exercise of the body’s significant regulatory powers. I am confident that these reforms will help restore public confidence in the integrity of the institution,” the senator said.
Gatchalian said SB 1490 retains the Joint Congressional Power Commission, composed of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, whose members shall exercise oversight powers over the implementation of the provisions laid out under the proposed law.