Consumer Groups Urge 2004 Candidates to Take up Power Issue
EPIRA a product of bribe and criminal act of corruption, says Sotto

Consumer groups are urging all presidential wannabes in the 2004 elections to take up the consumers' fight against EPIRA and high power cost.

BY GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Bulatlat.com

Opposition Senator Tito Sotto stepped up his attack against the controversial Energy Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which he called a product of bribery and criminal act of corruption.

Sotto, one of the guests in the launching of Power Summit 2 held at the Amoranto Multi-Purpose Stadium in Roxas District, Quezon City last week, said he has been talking with other senators both in the administration and opposition camps to support his bill calling for the outright repeal of EPIRA.

The lawmaker, one of the senators who opposed the EPIRA law during its deliberation at the upper house two years ago, said a strategy is now being formulated to ensure the repeal of the law that restructured the power industry through privatization.

In the same vein, the consumer group Alerto Mamimili and the People Opposed to Warrantless Electricity Rates (Power) urged all presidential wannabes in the 2004 elections to take up the consumers' fight against EPIRA and high power cost.

"Members of the Senate and House of Representatives still have the chance to prove themselves by junking EPIRA", says Alerto Mamimili spokesperson and Power convenor Lolita Donato. "All those who supported the EPIRA will pay dearly at the coming polls," she added.

Payback time kicks off in GMA's last SONA

"Tapos na ang kwentahan, panahon na nang singilan," says Anakpawis (toiling masses), a national alliance composed of workers, peasants and other urban and rural poor groups, said in a statement.

Peasant leader and Anakpawis chair Rafael "Ka Paeng" Mariano said his group will bring people’s issues, including the power issue, to Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's third and last State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28.

"This would be her last SONA. A high voltage protest is scheduled on the run up to the SONA and on the day of the SONA itself to present the real state of the nation. This would lay the political and economic basis why she should not stay beyond 2004," Mariano added.

Anakpawis plans to stage a nationally coordinated mass action on July 18 to indict Macapagal-Arroyo on her decision to keep and protect the Manila Electric Company and other giant players in the power industry at the expense of millions of consumers.

Mariano said the 3.9 million consumers and their votes could frustrate Macapagal-Arroyo’s bid for the presidency in 2004. The same applies to whomever her clique would choose to succeed her as the next chief executive.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) secretary general Teddy Casiño said there is a growing public resentment against an administration that has clear bias for big businesses like Meralco while oppressing the people with deceptive promises and, in reality, a fast rising electricity rates.

The militant leader said President Arroyo's pro-Meralco and anti-consumer record on the power issue is “enough to electrocute her and her cabal's far-out dreams of a presidential campaign.”

Meralco further exposed

Agham founding member and Power convenor Engr. Ramon Ramirez said the Lopez-owned utility giant is profiting from the so-called subsidies for low-end consumers. Ramirez said Meralco stands to earn at least P455 million from collections of inter-class subsidies.

"They slapped middle to high-end customers with excessive inter-class subsidies that are more than that required to pay for the subsidies given to lifeline customers. In simplest terms, Meralco not only charges other customers to shoulder the subsidies of the poor but has profited almost half-a-billion pesos in the process," Ramirez said.
 
Sugar daddy

Meanwhile, Bayan called the Asian Development Bank (ADB) a “sugar daddy” that funds all development scams in the energy sector. In an interview with Bulatlat.com, Casiño said the ADB was one of the brains behind the unbundling of charges and the Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA).

Militant groups led by Bayan, the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP-Peasant Movement of the Philippines), Anakpawis and party list group Bayan Muna (People First) staged a picket at the ADB Building Center in Ortigas Center, Pasig City to denounce ADB's annual meeting.

ILPS-Philippine chapter secretary general Rita Baua said the restructuring of the power sector through the privatization of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and other public services pampered utility giants like Meralco and Maynilad. Bulatlat.com

Related article: Embedded PPA in the New Unbundled Power Rates   

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