Sen. Francis Joseph “Chiz” G. Escudero, a member of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, bluntly said the government will be remiss in its duty of protecting and advancing the interests of the people if it pushes through in privatizing the Agus and Pulangi hydropower complex.
“If one or two companies will buy the Agus and Pulangi complex, a monopoly will result. They then can dictate the prices of electricity here in Mindanao,” he said on his way to the Lumbia airport after keynoting the“Mindanao Forum on Deferment of Agus and Pulangi Privatization,” organized by Xavier University and the Coalition of Mindanao Power Consumers at the Pryce Plaza Hotel here on Friday.
The Agus and Pulangi hydropower complex comprises more than 50 percent of the total installed power capacity of Mindanao.
Escudero said the government, through the Department of Energy (DOE), is now exerting efforts to solve the impending power crisis in Mindanao.
“But privatization is not the answer to the crisis,” he said.
One of the ways government can help address the power crisis is by requiring , through an executive order, all private owners of generators to register their gen-sets so that when there is a power failure, these gen-sets, grouped together and connected to the grid, can help provide power to affected communities.
As an example, he said power that can be generated by all generators in all the Philippine Economic Zone Authority sites in the country is 278 MW, which can power an entire progressive city or province.
“But of course, you have to compensate them and give them incentives,” he said.
Speaking in straight Filipino in his keynote speech, Escudero said “the root and fruit of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 [Epira, RA 9136] is competition.”
“But competition is not always the fruit of privatization,” he said.
“There is no competition if we open one area and create a monopoly. A monopoly is good if it is the government. But in the hands of the private sector, monopoly is a tool of abuse,” he said.
“The government is there to protect and nurture the people’s interests,” he reiterated, disclosing that part of this “protection and nurturing” the people’s interests is the Senate’s passage of a resolution on Thursday extending by 10 years the life of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC).
“In extending the life of the JCPC, although not directly said, Congress has admitted that privatizing all the assets of Napocor [National Power Corp.] cannot be done in the remaining time before June 2011. In extending for 10 years the life of JCPC, Congress admitted that this length of time is also needed before we can truly and completely privatize the generating plants and IPP [independent power producer] contracts owned by Napocor,” he said.
By operation of the law, the JCPC ipso facto expires in June 2011 as all assets of Napocor should have been privatized already.
