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THE
study group created by President Arroyo to look into the
claims of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and its
critics will convene Thursday to begin working on
recommendations to reduce power rates, Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Wednesday.
Ermita
said he has directed Finance Secretary Margarito Teves,
the head of the study group, composed mainly of the
country’s economic managers, to convene the group, to be
assisted by Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo and Conrado
Limcaoco, director-general of the Philippine Information
Agency.
“I told
him to immediately convene the economic team to comply
with the instructions of the President to immediately
come up with a study and a recommendation very soon on
how to address this issue of bringing down the power
rates, the issues brought out, especially those
presentations given by [lawyer] Christian Monsod and
[lawyer] Jessie Francisco of Meralco yesterday and the
points raised by [GSIS chief] Winston Garcia,” Ermita
said.
He said
the group is expected to “come out with a recommendation
to the President on how to proceed with this issue,
[and] to agree on a course of action to bring down
[power rates].”
Saludo
said he is not aware if Commission on Higher Education (ChEd)
Chairman Romulo Neri would attend the meeting but the
group may use him as a resource person, if necessary.
After
the Meralco’s presentation to the Cabinet on Tuesday.
Monsod had said that Neri was raising certain issues and
information about the matter, but that his data and
arguments were wrong.
The
President created the study group after hearing the side
of Meralco and Government Service Insurance System
president Garcia, among others, on the issue of power
rates in a Cabinet meeting held in Panglao, Bohol, on
Tuesday.
Asked to
comment on concerns that the group may be biased against
Meralco, Chief Presidential Counsel Sergio Apostol said
the study group would only be a recommendatory body that
will look for ways to reduce power rates, and “is not
intended to persecute Meralco.”
“Why
should the government do that? It’s just for
policymaking. It is not a front to malign Meralco or
anybody. . . . The members of the study group will be
fair. That’s why the President trusted them to handle
this,” Apostol said.
He added
that issues concerning alleged irregularities in Meralco
are best left to the stockholders and the Energy
Regulatory Commission. |
