Well done, this is great. That order was issued the day before the original hearing was to take place and so it looks like ERC just hasn't updated the hearings schedule on their webpage to reflect the new date as yet.
Either way, this is the kind of information that should be very welcome for shareholders after such a long delay to the start of the Phillipines power station. It is clear that in the past EWC have fallen victim to the vested interests of the current power generation regime but with the approval of this order from ERC, this can all change.
Also, your analysis of the short position is first rate and I agree with all of your highly thoughtful opinions. Only thing that I would add is in regards to why the short position might have increased in the short term. As a result of that small underlying "free float" that you mention I have noticed that the EWC price is very easy to push around (sometimes even the market makers can be quite destabilising). Over the last week or so I've noticed a pattern of pushing the price down into the later stages of the days trade and it is usually into some large waiting bids (Often you can see these turn up in the closing auction). Therefore, I think these smaller short sales might have been used as a strategy to exploit the cancelling of the hearing and cover the overall short at a lower level. If this is the case then as you say it is reasonable to expect we will see more covering from this point forward.
EWC Price at posting:
32.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held