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

Photo courtesy of Cobra-ans

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.