| DIE HARD III |
 |
| Herman Tiu Laurel |
06/08/2012
Several power struggles are going on. A minor one among the ruling
elite just saw the victimized Chief Justice (CJ) yield to the unjust
persecution. The other is the power struggle between those upholding the
principle of the Rule of Law and the self-serving abusers of that very
law among those in power.
Last Tuesday, several crusaders for the
Rule of Law went to the Supreme Court (SC) to demand action on the
pending petitions before it on the jurisdictional violations that were
prejudicial to the CJ’s case as well as to damn all the institutions
involved in the travesty of due process in the impeachment exercise.
Today,
as you read this, another “power” struggle is being waged by advocates
of the Filipino power consumers’ cause at a hearing of the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the 2013 Maximum Average Price (MAP)
petition by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) for its distribution
charge, which would again raise electricity rates in the coming years.
This is just one among a gamut of issues, including the Meralco-National
Power Corp. (Napocor) P14-billion settlement predictably granted by the
Rizal Regional Trial Court (RTC) as a pass-on cost to consumers, which
we will have to put a stop to. But let us first cut through all the
crap.
First, the 2013 MAP deliberations are premature since the
2012 MAP hearings still have unresolved issues as raised by Mang Naro
Lualhati (our octogenarian hero of the first P30-billion Meralco refund,
along with Cefie Padua and others), as well as the 500-percent
overpricing of transformers and other costs of Meralco approved by the
ERC, as charged by Iligan Light and Power Inc. (ILPI) against the power
distributor before the Court of Appeals.
In view of the fact that
the ERC just gave its provisional green light for Meralco to implement
its 2012 MAP, why on earth is it now hearing the MAP petition for 2013
without first resolving any of the important prejudicial questions?
Lualhati
issued this warning (through text): “Ka Mentong, ERC refuses to exclude
the P46,015-billion asset base bloating. This means P48-billion
overcharge in 2015. They will approve a charge of P2.50 to P3.50 per
kWh, instead of P0.90 per kWh, in 2013 as they have done in 2012…”
Today’s
hearing will have lawyer Bono Adaza volunteering his legal expertise,
in support of Butch Junia, who will be the lead advocate. Several
citizen volunteers are also joining, including Lito Villanueva, Boyet
Ancheta, and others who texted but didn’t give their names. Needless to
say, we would always need volunteers to show one and all that we are
vigilant — especially a certain lady justice of the SC who was appointed
by the current Palace occupant.
Justice Lourdes Sereno, one of
those suspected to be shortlisted by BS Aquino III as the next CJ, in an
SC decision favoring Meralco, had the gall to fault us consumer
volunteers for “not being vigilant” against the power giant’s rate
increase maneuvers when we had already devoted much of our own time and
resources to continuously oppose such abuses — as against the ERC’s
grant of a P2.2-billion “regulatory liaison budget” for Meralco, at the
expense of power consumers, even when the power company merely requested
approval for P2.02 billion (or P180 million less).
What
“regulatory liaison” means is beyond anybody’s understanding; but it
would lead one to believe that it forms part of Meralco’s needs in
“dealing” with the ERC. Just what the hell is this for? Could it be what
is sometimes called an “intermediation” cost? And why would the ERC be
so generous as to increase this on its own? Is this where the two
dozen-strong, highly paid Meralco legal team gets its fees?
In
contrast, poor consumer protection advocates simply dig into their own
pockets and take time out from their work to put in hours upon hours of
research and attendance in hearings in order to stop the power fleecing.
Then,
we have the P14-billion settlement agreement. For those still not in
the know, it concerns the contract obligations to purchase a certain
amount of electricity from Napocor that Meralco reneged on when it set
up its own independent power producers (IPPs) to purchase power from
these sister firms. Yet, despite losing the case, Meralco has
repeatedly petitioned to pass on this penalty to its customers.
Luckily
for consumer groups, this was one of the issues that former
Solicitor-General Jose Anselmo Cadiz fought hard against. But, as we
now know, a few months after Cadiz’s sudden and inexplicable resignation
in February, the decision of the Rizal RTC came out, leaving it to the
ERC to decide whether the P14-billion penalty will be shouldered by
Meralco’s customers.
Surprisingly, the replacement for Cadiz was
SolGen Francis Jardeleza, who was formerly a general counsel to a major
conglomerate that’s now among the owners of Meralco. Is it any wonder
why consumers lost the case under this new SolGen?
And, given the
ERC’s unbroken record of favoring Meralco, will its decision on the huge
pass-on financial obligation be much of a surprise?
Fortunately,
Jojo Borja of ILPI called us with some good news: engineer David Tauli,
former senior vice president of Cepalco (Cagayan Electric Power and
Light Co.), is now joining the crusade against the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (Epira) — the mother of all these power evils.
Frustrated
with the results of the Epira and the years of energy woes Mindanao has
faced because of it, particularly the crises of the last two years
which peaked in the first quarter of 2012 when the whole of Mindanao was
literally up in arms against the lies of Manila’s power authorities
(e.g., Sen. Serge Osmeña and Energy Chief Rene Almendras), Tauli has
become one of those very vocal about such suspicious power crises.
We would thus have to rouse more people like him into action as we continue on in this fight.
(Tune
in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon,
Monday-Wednesday-Friday [change of sched], 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny
Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with
replay at 11:15 p.m. on “The Power Struggle Continues” with Jojo Borja
and Butch Junia; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our
articles plus TV and radio archives)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120608com6.html
