The Energy Regulatory Commission has appointed a certified public accountant (CPA)-lawyer to take the post of previous commissioner Geronimo D. Sta. Ana who resigned last year.
Highly placed sources said the appointment papers of Paul Christian Cervantes is already due for release by the Office of the President as of last week. It will then be passed to ERC Chairperson Agnes Devanadera.
Cervantes will reportedly start his work as new commissioner this week.
He had his juris doctor (JD) degree from the Ateneo de Manila School of law and his accountancy degree from the University of Sto. Tomas.
His professional track record spans over ten years in tax management and corporate advisory works in different corporate organizations and businesses.
The new ERC commissioner will complete the leadership of the regulatory body. His appointment may signal a shift at the commission in terms of faster and more efficient process and decision-making.
The ERC has been full of case-backlogs. Based on the targets set by the ERC chairperson, the agency needs to act and decide on at least 1,000 cases by the first quarter of 2019.
Several of the pending works are on expiring power supply agreements. The Commission also needs to focus on newly filed petitions so capacity additions won’t suffer delays in achieving commercial operations.
The ERC also needs to sort out changes on the performance-based regulation of tariff setting for regulated power utilities such as the distribution utilities and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
