By ALEX GALANG

OLONGAPO CITY — Zambales First District Representative Jefferson “Jay” Khonghun has filed a bill to condone millions of outstanding debts in electricity billings owed by the Olongapo City government to power distribution companies.

Khonghun said the outstanding obligations of Olongapo that he proposed to be condoned amounted to PhP7,334,498,407.91.

The Zambales solon filed House Bill No. 7001 on February 1 to call for “the condonation of all outstanding obligations, interest payments, value added taxes, and other charges on power bills of the Public Utilities Department-Olongapo City (PUD-Olongapo) with the National Power Corporation (NPC) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corporation.”

The NPC is a Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation that was mandated to provide electricity to all rural areas, but whose assets and obligations were taken over by PSALM Corp. under the “Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001” (EPIRA). PSALM is a wholly-owned and -controlled government entity created to manage the orderly sale and privatization of NPC assets, including the transmission business of the National Transmission Corporation (NTC), with the objective of liquidating all of NPC’s financial obligations in an optimal manner.

In filing the bill, Khonghun noted that in June 2009, PUD-Olongapo’s account was transferred to PSALM under an asset and debt transfer agreement under the Republic Act No. 9316, or the EPIRA law.

“At the time the NPC transferred the account of PUD-Olongapo to PSALM, the outstanding balance of PUD-Olongapo amounted to P1,844,638,462.73,” Khonghun said.

He added that on Nov. 6, 2009, the power supply contract of PUD-Olongapo was assigned to San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC), which was the winning bidder for the operation of the Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant.

Khonghun said that if approved, House Bill 7001 “will finally release our City from all unsettled electricity bills that plagued us for more than a decade.” 