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Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Espinoza: Groping in dark on power problems
By Fred C. Espinoza
FEARS. It seems the successful trip of President Arroyo to China could not quiet the fears of our countrymen on the possibility that the remaining opportunity for resolving our fiscal crisis during her watch might eventually escape her grasp.
Many perceive that the economic managers of the Arroyo administration are still groping in the dark on how to cope with the problem, or at most could not agree among themselves on the right approach to the issue.
What the people would like now is for these economic managers to show that they are really working seriously for a coherent and consistent internal program to deal with this crisis, to quote Dr. Ernesto Permia, an economics professor from the University of the Philippines.
Perhaps our biggest consolation lies on the rear guard action of some of our leading senators who have grown wary about attempts by officials in the Department of Energy (DOE) to keep them in the dark on what’s happening in the power industry. This industry has become a major factor in the government’s heavy borrowing.
Recently, some senators raised the question: “Should Juan dela Cruz pay for somebody else’s profit?” The issue has prompted Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to ask why state-owned National Transmission Co. (Transco) should not absorb the 17.37-centavo hike sought by the Manila Electric Co (Meralco).
The senator called a public hearing Wednesday on the circumstances surrounding the decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission to grant Meralco’s petition starting this month. Meralco’s petition was anchored on the fact that the cost of generating electricity charged by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) had risen.
It appears that Meralco and other distribution utilities will not profit from the increase. If so, then it should not be the consumer, but Transco, that should absorb the increased cost, because Transco can afford to do so, Santiago said.
NOT IMPRESSED. Activists who have been monitoring government policy and the performance of Napocor are not impressed by the Palace’s attempt to shield the poor.
“They have been charging us for a big part of this undelivered electricity until the publicity stunt by President Arroyo on June 2002 when she reduced the PPA (purchased power adjustment) but did not change the contracts with the IPPs (independent power producers). This led to more losses for Napocor, which we now pay for with this increase,” they argued.
What the people can do perhaps now is to rally behind our senators who are against the privati-zation of Transco, the “acknowledged jewel and cash cow of the debt-ridden National Power Corp.,” according to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.
Enrile noted that not only is Transco reaping profits, it has not incurred any debt since it was established in 2001. “You can pass on the National Power Corp. debts to Transco which it can surely repay,” he said.
What has worried some senators is that the public has not felt any relief from the burden of rising electricity costs, which are now expected to be aggravated by recent increases in imported oil owing to the volatile situation in Iraq.
One cannot help but wonder what could have gone wrong in our country. We were made to believe by the policy makers that both the oil deregulation law and the Electric Power industry Reform Act (Epira) passed in 2001 would ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability of the supply of electric power. In the case of Epira, the senators pointed out that the law mandated a review of contracts with independent power producers.
Meanwhile, a paper detailing how President Arroyo caused Napocor’s losses to balloon from P5 billion in 1999 to P34 billion in 2002, has been done by the power-issues activist Maitet Diokno.
(September 7, 2004 issue)
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