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Press
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Workers from the
Alliance of Progressive Labor picketed the Energy Regulatory Commission
office this morning to protest the decision of the ERC granting authority
to the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) and Manila Electric Company (MERALCO)
to raise power rates on a monthly basis. “It is a stupid
response to a problem that should have been solved long ago if the
government had only listened to the clamor of the people to rescind its
onerous contracts with the Independent Power Producers or IPPs, “Josua
Mata, Secretary General of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, said.
The APL argued that the
consumers are still paying the Purchased Power Adjustments or PPA because
the government merely hid it, along with other adjustments, under a new
name, which is the GRAM or Generation Rates Adjustments Mechanism. It can be recalled that
President Gloria Arroyo lowered the PPA of NAPOCOR to 40 centavos from
1.25 pesos two years ago after the people held massive protests to scrap
the PPA from their monthly bills. However, the 85 centavos difference was
not actually removed but remained as outstanding debt of the government,
which the unsuspecting consumers had to pay in the process through a
series of rates increases. Aside from this, the government guarantees the
supply of oil to the IPPs. With the interminable depreciation of the peso
to the dollar and oil price increases in the world market, NAPOCOR debts
to the IPPs expanded tremendously thus increasing it today to an awesome
amount of more than 900 billion pesos.
Unfortunately, the ERC
decision has aggravated the situation further because now, NAPOCOR and
MERALCO were not only given the authority to increase rates on a monthly
basis but they can do so without approval by the ERC and holding of public
hearings. “The ERC and the
Arroyo government have not proven that they are serving in-behalf of the
Filipino people but are in fact, instruments of the IPPs to ensure
windfall profits as the power industry degenerates further at the expense
of the consumers and the Philippine economy,” Mata added. The Alliance of
Progressive Labor vowed to continue protesting the decision and until the
government finally accede to the demand of the people to scrap the PPA and
rescind its onerous contracts with the IPPs. |
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