Manila-based firm PJS Law has hired former Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta as a senior partner to strengthen its expertise in serving both private and public sector clients in the power industry across Asia.
“We anticipate that Mona’s recent experience leading the ERC can contribute to potential clients in the public and private sectors in other jurisdictions in Asia that are just starting out their journey towards power industry deregulation and privatisation,” Roy Santos, managing partner at PJS Law, told Asia Business Law Journal.
Dimalanta, who will officially join the firm on 1 October, served as the chairperson and chief executive officer at the ERC from 2022 to 2025. Prior to that, she was the chief legal and compliance officer at AboitizPower, a Philippine electricity distribution services company, in 2022. She also served as chairperson of the National Renewable Energy Board from 2019 to 2021, where she laid the groundwork for the country’s updated 20-year National Renewable Energy Plan and the foundation for the Green Energy Auction Program, among others.
Earlier in her career, Dimalanta also spent more than two decades as a senior partner at PJS Law, where she worked from 2001 to 2022.
During her tenure at the ERC, Dimalanta has led efforts, including the completion of long-overdue rate-reset exercises for regulated utilities, promotion of transparency and competition in power supply procurement and institution of programmes to ensure energy democracy for consumer empowerment.
The Philippine energy sector was perhaps the most dynamic in this part of Asia, given the privatised and deregulated nature of the industry since June 2001, said Santos. He added the changes had accelerated significantly with the entry of increased renewables in the mix that was now redefining the investment criteria and operational protocols in the grid.
He further stressed the retail electricity sector had grown immensely during the past few years and was projected to further accelerate in growth with the retail aggregation programme and the lowering of the contestability threshold to the household level in the next few years.
These shifts would require a lot of handholding especially for new entrants in both the supply and demand sides, said Santos. He added that with Dimalanta and her successful leadership in the ERC, the firm was sure to provide leadership and guidance.
“Our clients will be assured of the excellent brand of service, particularly in M&A, corporate governance and the infrastructure sector, that has characterised Mona’s previous two decades in PJS Law, which she had carried through in nation-building during her tenure at the ERC,” said Santos.
