Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 2, Number 23 July 14 - 20, 2002 Quezon City, Philippines |
Negros Press, Church Leaders Back Consumers’ Call for Power Industry Nationalization Negrenses, including church leaders and newsmen, took to the streets by the thousands over the weekend to call for the nationalization of the power industry. One of them, a priest, said that if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo refuses to heed their call, they would support calls for her ouster. By BULATLAT.COM
BACOLOD
CITY (Cobra-Ans for Bulatlat.com) - Fifty thousand protesters swarmed the
streets of Bacolod City on Saturday demanding an end to what they call
burdensome power and electricity rates that had been sucking off consumers’
small savings for years. The
rallyists streamed on board vehicles from three points in Negros Occidental
province, determined to convey their message to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
and her economic advisers. The
protesters - composed mainly of the middle classes, farmers, sugar workers,
small fisherfolk, the urban poor and drivers were not simply demanding for
short-term solution to the power and electricity problem, however. Instead of
just calling for the abolition of the purchase power adjustment (PPA), they
asked for long-term solutions which could box the government of President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo in a corner. They
called for the nationalization of the power and electricity industry. Among
those who espoused this position were Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, Fr. Armand
Onion of the Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR)- Negros, Fr. Mao
Buenafe of the Social Action Center and Fr. Greg Pateno of Negros Consumers
Watch (NCW). Supporting
the Bacolod Dioecese's position were the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) -
Negros and media organizations including the National Union of Journalists of
the Philippines (NUJP), the Correspondents, Broadcasters, Reporters
Association-Action News Service (COBRA-ANS) and the Congress of Active Media
Practitioners (CAMP). In
a press conference Thursday morning, the leaders of the protest movement
declared that they were not satisfied with the mere repeal of the PPA Act which
would at best be a temporary palliative. In
a joint declaration, the groups also junked the new Electric Power Industry Act
(EPIRA), a law which they warned would "wreak havoc on the lives of the
people and the local economy as it would strengthen the stranglehold of private
firms and multinationals, providing them a powerful license for unabated power
rate increases." Unbearable "The
effect of these oppressive programs and policies to our people would be
unbearable and horrendous as they will be charged an avalanche of increases in
electric bills and unbundling of rate charges," they said. Fr.
Pateno of NCW said nationalizing the power industry would return government's
regulatory power to protect the people's interests. Doing
so, Fr. Pateno and other protest leaders said, would mean the whole nation
defying the dictates of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank and the
powerful transnational corporations especially those engaged in the power and
electricity business. Nationalization
would also bar foreign investors from entering the power industry. Rally
leaders said they were prepared to mount a sustained campaign for
nationalization and against government’s globalization policies. In
an earlier interview Fr. Pateno accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for
being insincere in her publicized efforts to lower the PPA adding that her
intention was only to stop her popularity rating from falling. Latest surveys
showed the drop in the President’s popularity rating was due to the PPA. Pastoral
letter In
a pastoral letter read in all churches in the Bacolod Diocese which covers
Metro-Bacolod area and cities and towns with large Catholic population, Bacolod
Bishop Vicente Navarra described the EPIRA as a ruse to diffuse social unrest
over the PPA. In the end, the letter said, the act would bury Filipino consumers
in debt. Instead
of reducing power costs, the letter went further, EPIRA would institutionalize
private ownership in the power industry. In
their own statement, PCPR, NUJP, COBRA-ANS and CAMP, declared their support for
the massive protest action and future mass actions which will be launched on the
island province. The
signatories also said that the nation must now seek long-term solutions to the
problems brought about by the state policy of complete subservience to the
dictates of foreign interests particularly in the power and electricity
industry. "Investment
liberalization, privatization and deregulation are the main culprits in the
abrogation of protectionist policies for the nation,” the statement read.
“The strategy of globalization imposed by advanced industrialized countries is
intended to such huge profits which is exemplified by IPPs…Unfortunately, this
is a policy aided and abetted by the country's political leadership." A warning came from Fr. Pateno. If Macapagal-Arroyo refuses to heed the nation’s demand on the power industry, he said, concerned citizens of Negros will support the ouster campaign launched by cause-oriented groups against her. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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