Enrique Razon’s power play

Ports tycoon and casino magnate Enrique “EKR” Razon is excited to be back in the power business through a renewable energy project with the Violago family.

When I teased him about his “return to power” he quickly corrected that it’s just a return to the power business.

“Return to power does not sound good,” EKR said in his trademark husky voice and we both laughed.

 But indeed, he is excited about his power venture, which would produce an initial 50 megawatts.

It’s very interesting. It’s in a good location. There’s lots of water and rainfall,” he told me when I saw him during a reception held recently at the residence of the gracious Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Michael Klecheski (who incidentally ended his successful assignment in the country).

EKR’s comeback in the lucrative although highly regulated power business — albeit in a different form — was a long time coming.

In 2007, Razon’s Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. won the 25-year concession to operate the National Transmission Corp. with a bid of $3.95 billion. At that time, the firm was backed by mining mogul Walter Brown and Razon. Three years later, EKR eventually sold his stake in Monte Oro to Henry “BigBoy” Sy Jr.

Now, EKR is excited about his hydro-energy venture.

The San Lorenzo Group, led by businessman Oscar Violago and Razon’s Prime Metro Power Holdings Corp., have partnered for Wawa JVCo.,  which would establish facilities to capture and divert water from the Wawa River to be used by water distributors and consumers in Metro Manila.

Prime Metro has an 82 percent in the company, comprising a controlling stake.

Another joint venture is the Chico JVCO which “will construct and establish hydropower facilities for the supply of hydropower to power distributors and end users in Luzon. Its principal assets will be located in the area covered by the Chico HydroPower Service Contract in Tabuk, Kalinga province.”

The projects have already been approved by the Philippine Competition Commission last year. 

Razon is also reportedly preparing to take over Panay Electric Co. Inc. in the Visayas.

 If this is true, EKR’s power play could mean that lot of new things will be happening in the power industry in the coming days. Exciting times, indeed.

Bidding anomalies continue

President Duterte may have issued repeated warnings on anomalies surrounding public biddings but some government officers are acting like hopeless drug addicts who refuse to mend their ways.

Industry sources told me that the public bidding of a multimillion health project in a major southern province in Luzon is one such case.

The head of the bids and awards committee (BAC) cleverly rigged the result to favor the losing bidder. The losing bidder, which is used to winning contracts in the said province, submitted a ridiculously high bid, unaware that another supplier has placed a lower but justified offer.

But with a sleigh of hand, the BAC head - sensing the imminent loss of pet contractor - invited the losing bidder to the back of the room and later emerged with tampered bid documents showing a new and much lowered bid from pet bidder.

The doctored ‘bid’ — complete with obvious erasures and corrections — now has a much lower bid compared to the price submitted by the initial winning bidder.

Another example is a unit in the country’s military forces, which was looking for health equipment for its personnel.

 The unit was lucky enough to get funding support from a generous state agency but this particular agency wanted some BAC members to tailor-fit their technical requirements to ensure the win of a favored supplier.

The two bidding anomalies show that taxpayers’ money are constantly being wasted as public officials and their cohorts rig, undermine, sabotage and derail important government projects just to favor suppliers.

Bidding processes have significantly improved through the years but more safeguards are needed to ensure that corruption does not happen and that deserving and qualified contractors win projects. The projects, after all, are funded by taxpayers’ money.

Filipinos deserve so much more than rigged biddings and inferior suppliers because, as I’ve said before, we are taxed left and right. 

Iris Gonzales’ e-mail address is [email protected]