More commissioners, greater delays – ERC

MANILA, Philippines — The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has warned that increasing the number of commissioners could only cause deeper divisions and result in further delays in reaching final decisions, particularly in rate cases.

This concern arises amid a proposal to expand the current five-member regulatory body to nine under the proposed amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).

ERC chairman and CEO Francis Saturnino Juan said they submitted a position paper to the House of Representatives, expressing reservations about the move.

“What we’re saying is that this is more of a reaction to what was happening (case backlogs), and the failure is not due to the current structure but rather to something else,” Juan said in a chance interview.

Under a proposed amendment to EPIRA, the collegial body will increase to nine members, with Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao having three commissioners each in a bid to address regulatory backlogs.

The ERC, however, argued in a position paper that bringing in additional commissioners does not necessarily improve case resolution rates or speed up decision-making.

“Instead, it is likely to institutionalize gridlock. An increase in the number of voices may result in more protracted debates, deeper divisions and greater challenges in achieving the majority consensus necessary for critical decisions,” it said.

The commission emphasized that the reform seeks to resolve a problem that does not exist while “creating a new one.”

“The ERC’s challenge is not primarily a lack of personnel, but a lack of highly competent and experienced personnel,” the paper stated, underscoring the agency’s struggle to compete with the private sector for top-tier talent.

The ERC, under then-chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta, had supported the move to restructure the agency, noting that the current setup is not suited to deal with many stakeholders.

Unlike before, when state-run National Power Corp. had acted as the sole generator and utility provider, the power sector now consists of one transmission operator, over 200 generation firms and more than 100 distribution utilities.

Enacted in 2001, EPIRA reforms and liberalizes the country’s power industry by unbundling it into distinct sectors  – generation, transmission, distribution and supply – to promote greater competition in the electricity market.

According to Juan, the ERC had been set to attend a meeting on the proposed amendments to EPIRA following an invitation from former Presidential Legislative Liaison Office undersecretary Adrian Carlos Bersamin.

But that meeting is now in limbo after Bersamin resigned amid allegations raised by embattled former lawmaker Zaldy Co, who linked him to the alleged P100-billion insertions in the 2025 national budget.