Member-consumer-owners of FICELCO will have to wait for a few months more before the cooperative inks a contract with a new power supplier for 24 megawatts through a Competitive Selection Process (CSP), with the opening of bids originally set on Dec. 24, 2025.
Last Dec. 17, 2025, the FICELCO Bids & Awards Committee (BAC) created for the purpose terminated the process “due to identified compliance issues that require resolution to ensure transparency and full compliance with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) CSP Rules and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) CSP Guidelines.”
Accordingly, the BAC issued Supplemental Bid Bulletin No. 3, series of 2025, regarding the CSP termination
Based on the documents posted by the cooperative, the aforesaid issues were raised by one of the two bidders (SUWECO and DMCI Power Corp.) who participated in the pre-bid conference on Nov. 17, 2025.
The bulletin contained revisions to the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the CSP that had been approved by NEA after years of back-and-forth discussions with FICELCO’s technical panel.
It was DMCI Power which raised over 30 issues in the TOR, starting with the target delivery time of May 16, 2026, which is barely five months from the opening of bids.
DMCI correctly observed that while the bidding is open to various technologies, a limited timeframe may not allow proponents to explore more cost-effective and competitive generation options.
It noted that this may discourage the participation of bidders offering more affordable sources of power other than bunker, coal and renewable energy.
Subsequently, the BAC issued SBB No. 1 on Dec. 2 apparently containing the revisions to the TOR.
On Dec. 11, the NEA Regulatory Affairs Office sent a letter to the BAC on its observation that the original TOR was significantly revised.
“(T)he action taken by the FICELCO BAC runs counter to the principle of ensuring transparent and competitive process when changes were made after the publication of the said TOR,” it stated. “In this scenario, other parties, had it been aware or given the same information as the revised TOR, were deprived of a fair opportunity to participate in the bidding process.”
It formally directed the BAC to immediately undertake one of two actions: continue with the CSP under the original TOR as approved by NEA; or provide all potential bidders with a fair and equitable opportunity to participate in the CSP by republishing the TOR with the revision as intended, subject to the process review under existing rules.
In its reply dated Dec. 14, the FICELCO BAC decided to continue with option 1 and consequently issued SBB No. 2 declaring the changes to the TOR as invalid.
The termination of the CSP came on Dec. 17 via SBB No. 3, with the cooperative officials presumably now busy resolving the compliance issues to make sure the CSP is in accordance with NEA guidelines.
The issues raised by DMCI would probably need to be reviewed by NEA.
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HEAVEN AND HELL. A minister has worked himself up into quite a state while delivering a sermon on heaven and hell.
“Stand up if you want to go to heaven!” he entreated his congregation.
Everyone in the church rose at once, except a fellow in the front row.
“Are you telling me that you don’t want to go to heaven when you die?” the minister asked the man.
“When I die, sure,” the man replied. “I though you were getting up a load to go right now.”