MANILA – Various Filipino groups have protested an impending increase in electricity rates by the Manila Electric Company as public outrage continues to mount against one of the Philippines’ largest power company.
The youth group Anakbayan and the League of Filipino students also joined the protests in the country’s capital and both groups vowed to hold more street rallies to dramatize their anger over what other activists branded as “corporate greed.”
The Supreme Court is hearing the case against the power company after it issued a temporary restraining order in December stopping MERALCO from billing its customers the new rate.
Some lawmakers are threatening to fight the imposition of the new power rate after the government’s approval of it without conducting public hearings. The temporary restraining order ends in February, but it is unknown whether the Supreme Court would be able to resolve the issue.
EPIRA
There is widespread clamor for the Aquino government and Congress to repeal the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA, saying, this has allowed power companies to dictate electricity charges.
“Lagpas isang dekada na ang pandurugas at pangingikil ng MERALCO sa mamamayan. Ngayon, dinadaan pa nito sa blackmail ang pagsamo nitong alisin ang TRO sa dagdag-singil sa kuryente. Di na dagdag-singil yan, kundi holdap,“ Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan chairperson, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Crisostomo emphasized on the need to repeal the EPIRA which mandates the privatization of the electric power industry, the deregulation of power rates hikes, and the passing on to consumers of National Power Corporation or NAPOCOR debts through various charges.
He also criticized the government’s refusal to put a stop to incessant power adjustments and scrap EPIRA law.
“Habang patuloy na nalulugmok ang karaniwang tao sa bigat ng gastusin at lalo pang pagtaas ng mga bilihin, lumalangoy sa tubo ang mga electricity companies,” Crisostomo said, citing a study by the IBON Foundation which shows that the power industry accounted for 11% of all combined profits from corporations in the country.
“Lumalakas ang loob ng ganid na power industry cartel na magtaas ng singil dahil ang mismong kasosyo nila ay ang Pangulo,” Crisostomo said, referring to the President’s close ties with the owners of the three biggest electricity producers in the country – Danding Cojuanco, the Lopez family, and the Aboitiz family.
Crisostomo strongly reiterated that the only solution to the relentless rate adjustments is to nationalize the power industry rather than privatize it.
Student groups
The League of Filipino Students said the implementation of the P4.15 per kilowatt hour hike sought by MERALCO is being o[posed not only by civil society groups and various organizations, but by the public as well.
“This (protest) is to show that we are determined to stop the proposed increases. MERALCO has no right to blackmail us. We will not waive even if the inutile Aquino regime will not stand for us, we will assert against power rate hike. It is infuriating that amidst the increasing poverty and crisis, the Aquino regime, MERALCO, and other power generating companies collide in the name of escalating profit,” Pats Ombion, LFS Education and Research Officer, said.
Like other groups opposed to the new power rate hike, the LFS said because of the EPIRA, the government virtually granted permission to private power companies to automatically pass charges to the consumers and increase the power rate as they please.
“Since our power industry is privatized from generation to distribution and prices are deregulated, power firms gain more profit while the youth and the people suffer more. MERALCO and other power firms are downright greedy. It is more enraging that the Aquino regime is treating power as business to gain profit instead of a social service that the people need,” Ombion said.
Ombion said they are also demanding the immediate scrapping of the proposed power rate hike and EPIRA, adding there is a need to nationalize the power industry instead being privately-owned.
“This reflects that there is basically wrong with our current socio-economic system. We call on to our fellow youth and the people not just to continue to fight against power rate hike but to push for a genuine social change through our collective action. We see the need to overthrow a regime that protects the interest of these private companies instead protecting the needs of the people,” he said.
Metro workers
Workers in Metro Manila belonging to the labor coalition Nagkaisa also asserted that since the enactment of EPIRA – which led to the deregulation of the generation of generation sector, privatization of NAPOCOR assets, the creation of spot market, and the introduction of performance-based regulation – fraud allegedly became the norm in the power industry as shown by rising prices controled by cartels.
“It is no secret that owners of power firms, the so-called Voltage 5 (Aboitiz, Lopez, San Miguel, Henry Sy, and Pangilinan) have been earning record high profits from record high tariffs of their power-related firms,” it said.
The labor coalition recalled that lowering the cost of power was the pledge of the Arroyo administration when it prodded Congress to pass the EPIRA upon assumption to power 13 years ago.
Nagkaisa explained further that since 2008, many of its convener groups have attended and submitted position papers and argued against the ills of EPIRA before committee hearings of both houses of Congress, including those conducted by the powerful Joint Congressional Power Committee yet no actions were made to address those concerns.
It likewise chided the Executive for peddling the line that the only choice for now is between expensive power, or having no power at all.
“We hope the Supreme Court brings light to a dark decade of power hikes, naked greed, and blackmail amid unreliability of power supply,” Nagkaisa said.
But electric cooperatives in Luzon are also increasing power rates to as high as P3.22 per kilowatt hour due to the high cost of electricity in the spot market.
No to unjustified power rate hike
Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., a government spokesman, reaffirmed the Aquino administration’s stand against unjustified power rate hikes. He said the government continues to keep tabs on the issue.
“Patuloy ang pagsusubaybay ng Pangulo at ng pamahalaan sa isyung ito at patuloy ang determinasyon huwag pairalin ang hindi makatuwirang singil sa kuryente (The President and the government will continue to monitor developments on this issue. They remain determined not to allow an unjustified rate adjustment),” Coloma said on state-run Radyo ng Bayan.
Coloma said the government respects the views of the protesters and said the Aquino administration is willing to listen to groups if they have concrete suggestions related to the grievances they have raised.
The Department of Energy or DOE has already started public consultations to include the power industry stakeholders on its proposed amendments to EPIRA or the Republic Act 9136. The consultations, which started January 10, ends on February 5.
The DOE, citing the results of the 2011 Household Energy Consumption Survey, said electricity remains as the most common source of energy used by household in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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