Zamboanga City: The Court of Appeals (CA) has directed the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to "resolve on the merits" an application for a power supply agreement (PSA) intended to enhance the electricity supply in Zamboanga City. The appellate court's 15th Division granted a petition filed by San Miguel Consolidated Power Corp. (SMCPC) to address the 2016 joint application for PSA filed by SMCPC and the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (ZAMCELCO).

According to Philippines News Agency, the decision, which was made public on Tuesday, emphasized the necessity to reinstate ERC Case No. 2016-094 RC. The CA stated that the ERC must resolve the application on its merits in line with its mandate under Section 45 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which is to enforce safeguards aimed at promoting true market competition and preventing harmful monopolies and market power abuse.

The case was brought to the CA after the ERC instructed the parties to adhere to the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in 2019. This was in reference to the Alyansa Para Sa Bagong Pilipinas (ABP) v. ERC case, which required all PSA applications to comply with the competitive selection process (CSP) outlined in a 2018 Department of Energy (DOE) circular.

In its petition, SMCPC argued that the ERC should not have applied the 2018 DOE Circular retroactively to the 2016 PSA, claiming it violated SMCPC's fundamental rights to due process. The CA ruling noted that there were two bidding processes in which only SMCPC participated and succeeded. The court asserted that the objectives of transparency, as highlighted in the Supreme Court case, were achieved in this instance. It deemed requiring SMCPC and ZAMCELCO to undergo another CSP as redundant and unnecessary.

The court concluded that it would be unreasonable to mandate the parties to repeat a procedure that had already been completed, describing such a requirement as "absolutely absurd."