East Asia units get debt reprieve

The Malabon Regional Trial Court has issued an order effectively suspending all claims lodged against East Asia Power Corp.’s power generation units East Asia Diesel Power Corp. and Duracom Mobile Power Corp.

In its order, the Malabon RTC also prohibited EADPC and DMPC from selling, transferring or disposing any of their properties except in the ordinary course of their business. They are also probhited from making any payment of their liabilities outstanding at the date of filing of the petition.

Aside from this, EADPC’s and DMPC’s supplier of goods and services are prohibited from withholding supply of goods and services in the ordinary course of business for as long as EADPC or DMPC pay for goods supplied after the issuance of the court order.

The Malabon court has appointed a certain Eduardo Robles as rehabilitation receiver for the two companies.

The filing of the petition for corporate rehabilitation was prompted by the recent aggressive and precipitous actions taken by some of the companies’ financial creditors which included the seizure of all their cash deposits.

"EADPC’s management saw the need for EADPC and DMPC to undergo rehabilitation to enable it to resume its power supply services and thereby protect the interests of and benefit their stakeholders, employees and the general public," East Asia said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

With a feasible rehabilitation plan in place, East Asia hopes that EADPC will resume full operations in the near future.

East Asia is one of the country’s independent power producers, perating power generation facilities in Metro Manila, Bataan, Cebu and Mactan Island. It also has interests in a 24-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Jiangsu province in the People’s Republic of China.

In addition to its power plant operations, East Asia owns 100 percent of East Asia Power Services Inc. which offers planning, construction, operation and maintenance consultancy services to other prospective and established power generating facilities.

East Asia has also ventured into the transmission and distribution sub-industries of the power sector through the incorporation of a wholly-owned subsidiary, East Asia Transmission and Distribution Corp.