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/
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