MILITANT groups on Tuesday filed before the Ombudsman a complaint against officials of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for alleged price manipulation.

The complainants include the People Opposed to Warrantless Electricity Rates, the party-list group Agham, Gabriela and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

“Electricity consumers are now fighting back,” the groups’ joint statement said.

The groups allege that Napocor, through its president Cyril del Callar, exercised abuse of market power when three plants of the state-run company allegedly colluded to offer electricity at much higher rates, ranging from P10 to P20 per kilowatt-hour, by artificially creating supply shortages so that they could recover their stranded costs.

Napocor is allowed to recover around P9 billion in generation charges from the questionable transactions between August to November 2006.

The groups maintain that the price manipulation at the WESM pushed generation rates even higher. This is the second case filed by consumer groups against Napocor officials. The first involved alleged overpriced emergency coal purchases that also contributed to higher generation rates.

Militant groups filed the charges in the wake of higher power rates at the WESM for the first quarter of 2008. Electricity rates are expected to rise through May.

“There have been credible findings by government authorities that there was price manipulation during the period of August to November 2006. The trading strategies employed by the Napocor plants appeared to have stemmed from a memorandum from del Callar asking his subordinates to recover losses incurred by Napocor during the first two months of trading at the WESM,” said Power convenor Ramon Ramirez.

“The complainants have never been convinced by the government’s pronouncements that the WESM structure can bring about transparent electricity pricing or more competitive power rates. And such inability will remain regardless of whether Napocor’s dominance in the generation sector is maintained, or its generation assets completely privatized. What is appalling in the instant case is that a state-owned corporation like Napocor had the audacity to take advantage of its position to dictate market prices to the detriment of consumers, and that the authority supposedly exercising regulatory powers over the Napocor allowed the latter to get away with acts which were explicitly found to be ‘highly inappropriate and irregular,’” the groups said in their complaint.

“Moreover, Napocor has even taken direct and concrete steps to be paid the full amount representing the value of the subject transactions that have been explicitly and officially described as ‘highly inappropriate and irregular?’  Clearly, it appears that it is only the Ombudsman that can act with dispatch to investigate the forgoing matters, stop further steps being taken to complete the questioned transactions and penalize or prosecute, or both, the persons and parties responsible, particularly Napocor president Cyril del Callar,” they added.

Gabriela deputy secretary-general Lana Linaban decried the fact that no matter how bad policy decisions are made by Napocor, it is the consumers that end up bearing the burden of high power rates. “Higher generation rates are always automatically being passed on to consumers. That is the great tragedy here,” Linaban said.

The chairman of Agham, Gani Tapang, clarified that the WESM and a deregulated regime may not be in the best interest of consumers given the recent track record of the Napocor and Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.) “Some people may argue that the full privatization of the Napocor is the solution. Even then, collusion between private generators is still possible, as was shown in experiences in the US,” Tapang said.

“The Arroyo government has miserably failed to bring down power rates despite earlier promises from the Electric Power Industry Reform Act. This complaint is being filed to make energy officials accountable and to make the industry itself accountable to the consumers who have had enough of high power rates,” said Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr.

HSBC: Inflation could reach 8.5%

INFLATION could be as high as 8.5 percent between now and June, according to the regional chief economist of the global lender HSBC on Tuesday.

MILITANT groups on Tuesday filed before the Ombudsman a complaint against officials of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for alleged price manipulation.

SANDIGANBAYAN sheriffs backed by policemen on Tuesday failed to locate former justice secretary Hernando Perez, his wife Rosario and brother in law Ramon Arceo, who were ordered arrested by the antigraft court on graft, extortion and other charges.

EIGHT out of the 24 hospitals that perform kidney transplantation in the country have violated the law that limits the number of such procedure done on foreigners, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

CITY OF MALOLOS—Several security guards and a mining operator in Bulacan on Tuesday filed several cases against retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and several others before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in this city.

THE National Police is closely coordinating with the Judiciary the turnover of confiscated firearms that have been submitted as evidence in court for the possible use of its members.

A COURT martial ordered on Tuesday the discharge from the service of five junior officers it found to have violated the Articles of War in connection with their participation in the Oakwood mutiny in Makati City almost five years ago.