Wage increase, solar energy pushed to counter high electricity rates

 Wage increase, solar energy pushed to counter high electricity rates

“Filipino workers are burdened by First-World electricity rates and prices and Third-World wages.” – KMU
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA—After raking in good profits last year and in the first three quarters of this year –enough for it to raise its profit projection from P12.2-billion ($283 million) last year to P14.5-billion ($337 million) this year – the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) warned of higher electricity rates this month. The country’s biggest power distributor cited as reason the higher cost of generated electricity it is buying from different power producers.

As expected, the announcement of rate hike was greeted by collective groans and complaints. The announced P0.44 hike per kilowatt in electricity rates will further increase rates in the Philippines, which the Australia-based International Energy Standards had already described last year as the highest in Asia.
In a statement, the progressive labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said they are opposed to the power rate hike. They asked the Aquino government to stop Meralco from further hiking the already high power rates, and to increase, instead, the wage levels in the Philippines, which have been recorded as one of the lowest in the world.

Even before this rate hike, KMU estimated that in the National Capital Region where the “deficient” wages are relatively higher compared to other regions, a minimum wage earner spends no less than 10-percent of his or her monthly income on electricity bills alone.

“Filipino workers are burdened by First-World electricity rates and prices and Third-World wages,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general. The impending rate hike will add P44 ($1.02) more to the bill of households consuming 100 kWh per month, and P88 ($2.04) for those consuming 200 kWh per month. These are “too burdensome for workers earning the minimum wage and those earning even less,” said Soluta.

The labor group has been pushing for a P125 ($2.91) nationwide wage hike for a decade now, to help families defray the increasing cost of living. But every year, the government has merely tasked the regional wage boards to deliberate and decide on the amounts of wage hikes. Every time, though, all labor groups in the country condemn the regional wage hikes as too paltry.

On top of the increases in toll fees, transport fares due to continued oil price hikes, this latest power rate increase will further lessen the real value of workers’ wages in the country, said the KMU. The labor group scored the “capitalists in power” and likened them to a hostage-taker “taking advantage” of the consumers’ need for electricity.

Giants in privatized public utilities

Based on reports, the Meralco franchise covers more than 55 percent of the Philippines’ GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and the company has just vowed to expand it further. Since it changed hands from the Lopez family who also operates power generating plants to Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) led by Manny V. Pangilinan, Meralco has lately claimed powerlessness over rate hikes. It cites the fact that it sources its electricity requirements from the electricity spot market, state-run National Power Corp., and independent power producers.

But as with many privatized utilities in the country, Filipino consumers are just being charged various “unbundled” items in their bills, of which 58-percent are said to be generation charges. The consumers and the government have little to no oversight in the unbundled components of their electric bill nor in the power rate contracts entered into by Meralco and power producers. Unfortunately, past disclosures of progressive union members, including those who had been laid off for having participated in strikes in Meralco, had called attention to various irregularities here.

Meralco’s muscle for “hostage-taking” appear in the process of gaining strength, as it is now looking also to further spread its power over the country’s power sector. Aside from expanding its franchise coverage, it plans to spend as much as $2.3 billion (about P103 billion) to complete its planned power generation portfolio between now and 2016. This is, on top of the fact that the key stakeholder of Meralco, the Metro Pacific Investment Corp., the local arm of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. which also controls the Philippine Long Distance Company, Smart, Talk & Text and SunCellular and TV5, also has controlling stake in some of the country’s toll roads and hospitals..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/11/groups-push-for-wage-increase-solar-energy-to-counter-high-electricity-rates/