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FIRST
Philippine Holdings chairman Oscar Lopez has offered to
sell the family’s 33.4-percent shares in Manila Electric
Co. (Meralco) amid government interventions and threats
of takeover.
Lopez,
who was one of the speakers at the meeting of the
European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP)
in Makati City Thursday, said it is the government’s
responsibility to bring down the electricity rates by
removing the value-added tax (VAT) and royalties on
natural gas, effectively accusing the government of
turning the Lopezes into a bogey.
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president
Winston Garcia had earlier asked the Meralco board to
open its books and openly called for a change in
management as part of the government’s efforts to be
able to bring down electricity rates.
That
move, backed by Malacañang Palace as part of the
President’s declared vow to bring down electricity
rates to help people coping with inflation, has been
viewed by critics in the Senate, though, as politically
loaded—or a pressure tactic on the Lopez family that
owns some of the biggest media entities in the country,
such as ABS-CBN. Palace officials advised the Lopezes
Thursday to focus on the issues, and nothing more. Asked
whether his company is willing to buy shares under GSIS
to be able to stop the government’s looming takeover,
Lopez said:
“We
don’t have the money [to buy those shares]; if he
[referring to GSIS president Winston Garcia] wants, he
can buy us out,” said Lopez in an ambush interview with
reporters at the ECCP meeting at the Rennaissance Hotel
in Makati Thursday.
He
continued: “I am sick and tired of this business, we
can’t even get a rate increase because the government is
always saying our rates are too high.” Meralco had been
accused, among others, of buying from the open market
the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market at peak hours when
rates are high, and sourcing a substantial part of its
requirements from its own independent power producers
instead of just the state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor).
The sale
of the Lopezes’ share in Meralco, Lopez told reporters,
is open to bidding “either to him [Garcia] or to foreign
interests.”
He said
the company is not threatened by the scheduled
investigations next week by the Senate and House of
Representatives, both with an avowed aim of reducing
electricity charges by Meralco.
“They
can do whatever they want… all I’m saying is, high rates
are not Meralco’s responsibility; our rates are as low
as we can get them [to be],” said Lopez.
Lopez
said the proposed change in the management of Meralco by
giving bigger role to the government is reversed
privatization.
“It’s
the government’s responsibility to bring down the rates
and not to look at Meralco,” said Lopez.
Malacañang on Thursday responded to the angry remarks
triggered by the government’s moves against Meralco, and
urged the utility officials to focus on the primary
issue hounding the firm—transparency in its billing
system—instead of allegedly straying into other issues
that would only muddle, and not clarify, the matter.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a news briefing
there would not have been a public clamor for Meralco to
divulge its financial books had it only yielded to the
earlier request of GSIS to do so.
Bunye made the statement in response to allegations that
Malacañang is behind efforts to compel Meralco to bare
its books in retaliation for the airing of Senate probes
on controversial government deals in the Lopez-owned
ANC.
To this,
he said: “What we only want to know is what is the basis
of their computation for high charges. That’s all....Let
us limit ourselves to what the public wants. The sum
total is the public only wants the basis of computation
of the rates being charged by Meralco.”
Asked to
comment on the statement of Lopez, chairman of First
Philippine Holdings Corp., that he is ready to give up
Meralco to the GSIS or foreign investors, Bunye said,
“We have no interest in ownership. Our only interest is
information.” On Meralco’s suggestion that the
government instead lower power rates by scrapping the
expanded value-added tax and reduce its royalties from
Malampaya, Bunye said Meralco should first provide a
clear explanation of its power charges amid allegations
of overcharging.
He added
that the government has already offered “construction
solutions” to Meralco on power- rate reduction, such as
for it buy from the Napocor during off-peak hours to
enjoy better rates, which the Napocor is willing to
accommodate.
Bunye also said the GSIS request to Meralco could have
remained as an “intercorporate matter” had the latter
not rejected it.
“The
request of GSIS was not granted, so now more people want
an inspection of Meralco’s books,” he said. |
