MANILA, Philippines — Cebu-based Vivant Corp. said it has no unpaid debts with state-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM)
This as Vivant clarified it is not connected to Vivant-Sta. Clara Northern Renewables Generation Corp. nor the Bakun hydroelectric power plant in Alilem, Ilocos Sur, which is fully owned by Northern Renewables.
“We have no delinquent accounts with PSALM, and are fully compliant and up-to-date with all our payments,” Vivant said in a statement.
“The ‘Vivant’ in Vivant-Sta. Clara is a remnant from our previous engagement with Northern Renewables, but we have since sold our complete stake in Vivant-Sta. Clara Northern Renewables Generation Corp, which was equivalent to 48 percent, as far back as October 2018,” the company said.
PSALM continues to run after independent power producer administrators (IPPAs) with delinquent accounts totaling a whopping P33.62 billion.
This follows the directive of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to pursue all legal remedies to compel IPPAs to pay up at once.
One of the identified companies with unpaid obligations is Vivant-Sta. Clara Northern Renewables, which administers the IPPA agreement for the Bakun hydroelectric power plant in Ilocos Sur.
PSALM said it has an unpaid account of P4.19 billion. It expects to collect additional payments from the company this year in view of a settlement agreement submitted to the court.
Other IPPAs that were reportedly indebted to PSALM are San Miguel Corp.’s South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC), which administers the capacity of the Ilijan gas-fired power plant in Batangas City with P23.94 billion as of end December; Good Friends Hydro Resources Corp. of Fernando Borja with P1.21 billion; Waterfront Mactan Casino Hotel Inc. of William Gatchalian, P87.74 million; FDC Utilities Inc., P1.17 billion; and FDC Misamis Power Corp., P2.63 billion.
“If these hefty financial obligations remain unpaid, PSALM will be compelled to contract new borrowings in order to timely liquidate maturing obligations of Napocor (National Power Corp.)–a vicious cycle that will result in PSALM absorbing additional interests and other finance charges,” PSALM president Irene Joy Besido-Garcia said.
If the P33.62-billion delinquent accounts remain unpaid by the IPPAs, PSALM will incur an annual borrowing cost of about P1.7 billion a year—a substantial amount that could have otherwise been used by the government to spend more on its priority programs on infrastructure and human capital development.
The P33.62-billion delinquent accounts are part of the P95 billion in unpaid charges owed to PSALM by IPPAs, other industry players and electric cooperatives (ECs) plus receivables inherited from Napocor or those still subject to reconciliation, Garcia said.