Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 3) – The power unit of San Miguel Corporation has insisted the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court has jurisdiction over the case involving the Ilijan plant in Batangas, which supplies power for Luzon.
“Both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals (CA) have already ruled that the Mandaluyong RTC has jurisdiction over the pending case between South Premiere Power Corporation and Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) on computation of generation charges under the Ilijan power contract,” SPPC said in a statement.
SPPC was reacting to Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso’s remark who asserted that the Ilijan power plant case should have been filed before the Energy Regulatory Commission and not the lower court.
The case concerns the SPPC’s generation payments to the state-run PSALM under a deal to operate the Ilijan facility.
“PSALM based generation payments on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices, [while] SPPC believes that selling its capacity there would have put the company in violation of provisions of their contract approved by ERC and designed specifically to protect consumers from volatile and higher electricity prices in the WESM,” the SMC unit said.
PSALM also maintained SPPC owes them P23.94 billion, but the SMC unit said it already paid their dues to the government. SPPC said it has so far made P314.6 billion in payments, which includes P240.7 billion in generation charges.
