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Bella Cariaso - The Philippine Star
June 29, 2025 | 12:00am
The new policy brief conducted by UPCIDS Political Economy Program (PEP), in collaboration with Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute (PERPI), titled, “Rethinking the Country’s Failed Electric Power Policy,” was written by Niceto Poblador.
The STAR / Miguel de Guzman, file
Amid high power costs
MANILA, Philippines — A study conducted by the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UPCIDS) cited the need to evaluate the performance of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in discharging its regulatory functions amid the high electricity costs in the country.
The new policy brief conducted by UPCIDS Political Economy Program (PEP), in collaboration with Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute (PERPI), titled, “Rethinking the Country’s Failed Electric Power Policy,” was written by Niceto Poblador.
“There is an obvious need to evaluate the performance of the ERC in discharging its regulatory functions. The political appointments in the commission have compromised its independence. The ERC has become a tool for the Executive and Legislative branches of government to postpone unpopular price increases to the detriment of the economic wellbeing of consumers and at the expense of the worsening financial conditions of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM),” the study said.
The research added that the ERC’s mandate should be upgraded to enable it to adequately monitor the ongoing concentration in the electric power industry.
The paper added that among the major reasons for the dismal economic performance of the Philippines in recent years is the exceedingly high cost of energy in the country which stood at P10.15 per kilowatt-hour in 2022, second only to the highest in Southeast Asia.
“By comparison, Malaysia has the lowest price of electric power in the region at P1.42/kWh,” the paper noted.
“In hindsight, it was a big mistake for the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) to completely remove the government’s role in power generation. Even as we allow private provision of electricity, reintroducing the government in the generation sector will provide the much-needed mechanism to address market failures in putting up adequate new capacity and to counterbalance any anti-competitive behavior of the big private players,” the study said.
It pushed for the reversal of the existing policy of breaking up the electric power industry into its basic components and to re-cluster the industry by vertically integrating power generation, transmission and distribution into a single corporate entity.
