| DIE HARD III |
 |
| Herman Tiu Laurel |
05/11/2012
Meralco files plea for 2013 rate hike,” newspapers announced this
week. Former Misamis Oriental Gov. Homobono Adaza and Jojo Borja of
Iligan Light and Power updated me on this latest attempt of the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) to pull a fast one on power consumers. This
refers to the case filed against the Maximum Allowable Price (MAP)
application of Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) before the ERC by
octogenarian accountant and consumer advocate Mang Naro Lualhati — a
case that is now filled with several anomalies.
First, the notice
for the May 7 ERC hearing arrived anomalously late, at lawyer Adaza’s
residence on the Sunday afternoon just before Monday. Thus, Adaza had to
call Borja to fly from Bukidnon, where the latter had just alighted,
back to Cagayan de Oro and then Manila overnight to catch the next day’s
event.
At the ERC hearing, only a “hearing officer” presided.
Upon arriving and entering his appearance, Adaza asked the “hearing
officer” if he was “the” hearing officer. It turned out that the guy was
only a clerk of court. Only after being informed that Adaza was there
did the chairman of the ERC, Zenaida Ducut, suddenly decide to appear
and preside — a basic legal requirement that has never been met in all
past ERC hearings participated in collectively or separately by our
advocacy groups.
Since the occasion was being used to formally
accept so-called evidence that will buttress Meralco’s MAP petition, it
was an evidentiary hearing that, according Adaza, was illegal since Jojo
Borja also had a pending petition at the Court of Appeals questioning
the continuation of the proceedings until prejudicial questions were
resolved.
Adaza and Borja would have missed the ERC hearing, with
Meralco already laughing all the way to the bank, if the obviously and
deliberately late arrival of the notice wasn’t noted that Sunday. Adaza
no longer made an issue of it as he had already averted the scheme.
Still, he found the order for the hearing anomalous, as it was merely
signed “for the ERC commissioners,” even when the law states that such
orders need to be signed by all commissioners — an anomaly regularly
committed by the ERC, but this time, protested by Adaza — compelling
the entire proceeding to be delayed for another five days.
As
such, five million Meralco customers got a reprieve, thanks to Adaza,
Borja and Lualhati (who wasn’t able to attend due to physical
infirmities).
But trust the ERC to continue frustrating consumer advocates’ questioning and exposés of Meralco’s predatory rate hikes.
Since
2003, Meralco and ERC have been having their way in running rings
around, despite roadblocks placed by the Puno Supreme Court and the
Commission on Audit. This time, they have finally met the determined
team that will stop them.
When BS Aquino III stepped into
Malacañang, the power oligarchs’ noose tightened even more around the
Supreme Court with the appointment of BS Aquino III’s justices,
including Justice Lourdes Sereno who has decided in favor of Meralco in
the most crucial issue of rate increases and nitpicks on consumer
protectionists.
Meanwhile, on the postponed Joint Congressional
Power Commission (JCPC) meet that was supposed to be jointly chaired by
Sen. Serge Osmeña and Rep. Dina Abad (who was conveniently out-of-town
last April to avoid its convening), there is yet no official word as to
when the shelved hearing is to be re-scheduled.
The latest reports
from Mindanao say the power crisis there is getting worse. Brownouts
are getting longer. The cause is supposedly the rehabilitation work
being done at the Agus-Pulangi, which energy officials, particularly
Department of Energy Secretary Rene Almendras, left undone for two years
of the BS Aquino III government, despite calls from Mindanaoans in 2010
that it was desperately needed.
Clearly, the negligence was
deliberate, as the delay of the rehabilitation directly led to the power
shortfalls that created the power crisis there this season.
In
the wake of Mindanao’s electricity woes, government was compelled to
call for a summit and schedule a convening of the JCPC. Amazingly,
Mindanaoans were even blamed for this by PeNoy while the JCPC was
indefinitely postponed due to a lack of quorum — this, as government
losses due to the crisis have already reached P15 billion, with
Mindanao’s own economy experiencing losses of up to P60 billion.
The
attitude and misdeeds of all those involved in the Philippine energy
sector, private power companies and the agents they get appointed to
government who are horrendously corrupt and rotten — promoting
oligarchs’ interests and their own “golden parachutes” — constitute a
clear betrayal of the people.
How these people continue to hold on
to their posts can only be explained by the complicity of the top
appointing power and the corruption of money-based elections of this
country.
In all sectors of the Philippine power elite, such
betrayal of duty and rot is evident, as when the Senate cavalierly
dismisses the plea to inhibit compromised judges; or when media
practitioners irresponsibly report false information; or when police
officials get involved in the murder of protected state witnesses, ad
nausea.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon,
Monday to Friday, 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., this
May 12 on “Power, Manila, and Mindanao” with Bono Adaza, Al Tillah and
Jojo Borja; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles
plus TV and radio archives)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120511com7.html
