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MILITANT legislator said the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)
is just one factor in the power-rate increase even as he
blamed the bulk of the problem to the supply contracts
signed by the government-owned National Power Corp. with
independent power producers.
“Meralco
is just one part of the problem. The bigger problems are
the onerous contracts that have caused these spiraling
power costs,” said Party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño of
Bayan Muna.
Casiño
also branded “superfluous and puzzling” the move of
President Arroyo to call on big business to join forces
with the government to help bring down the power rates,
saying that the petition to lower power rates could be
decided on its merits, even without them.
On
Saturday Arroyo called on the Federation of Philippine
Industries and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese
Chambers of Commerce and Industry to join the
government’s battle to bring down power rates.
The
Energy Regulatory Commission has scheduled a hearing on
Tuesday to deliberate on these petitions, which included
prohibiting Meralco from charging systems loss on
consumers.
Casiño,
a member of the House Committee on Energy headed by
Arroyo’s son, Lakas Rep. Mikey Arroyo of Pampanga,
claimed that the President is not that serious in
bringing down the cost of power.
“Gumagawa
ng hakbang kunwari si GMA [Arroyo] na
pakitang-tao na gustong ibaba ang Meralco rates.
Tandaan na malaking tipak sa ating binabayaran ay
napupunta sa gobyerno,” Casiño said.
Two
weeks ago Meralco announced an adjustment in its
electricity charges this month of P0.5188 per
kilowatt-hour (kWh) in generation, P0.30 per kWh in
distribution, P0.0759 per kWh in transmission and
P0.0770 per kWh in systems-loss charge.
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. wanted an
explanation and prodded the Committee on Energy to look
into the reasons the Meralco increased electric
charges.
In a
statement, Pimentel acknowledged that Meralco’s latest
rate increases may be justified if one looks only at the
rising cost of crude oil, which is hitting $120 per
barrel, but pointed out “there is also Section 23 of the
Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act] that
obligates electric-distribution utilities to supply
electricity at the least cost to their so-called captive
market.”
“It may
be true that Meralco’s buying electric power from
National Power Corp. and the Wholesale Electricity Spot
Market may be more costly than buying it from
independent power producers [IPPs] like the Santa Rita
and San Lorenzo power plants,” he said. “The problem,
however, is that if Meralco buys electricity from those
IPPs, it may be cross-subsidizing them as these IPPs are
reportedly owned partially, if not fully, by Meralco.
That would, in effect, violate the principle that a
company that distributes electricity may not also
produce it.”
Pimentel
insisted there is an urgent need for Congress to review
the Epira to spare consumers from the spiraling cost of
electric power by some legal device, like mandating the
state-owned National Power Corp. to impose its
rate-reduction powers on power distributors in times of
emergency.
To
immediately bring down the power and oil rates, some
legislators are seeking the suspension of expanded
value-added tax on oil and power and collection of
royalty on natural gas. |
