Bayan Muna Party-list representatives have called for a House inquiry on Meralco’s planned power rate hike.
Leftist lawmakers Rep. Carlos Zarate and Neri Colmenares sought the investigation of the impending P3 to P3.50 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) hike this December through the filing of House Resolution 588.
Zarate slammed Malacañang’s effort to explain the power hike, saying that the government has in effect chosen to protect the interest of big companies rather than the welfare of the people. The Palace had said that the hike was neither arbitrary nor unreasonable.
“This planned power rate increase is obviously artificial and contrived, considering that the supposed ‘maintenance shutdown’ of the Malampaya natural gas plant between Nov. 11 to Dec. 10 was scheduled long ago, other cheaper sources could have been used to compensate without imposing additional burden to our people,” Zarate said.
He pointed out that the increase is “clearly planned” since the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) are supposedly implementing a national energy program.
“An investigation is definitely in order, considering that we have had enough calamities for the year. Meralco should not be callous by adding more to our woes,” stressed the Makabayan legislator.
He likened the present situation to that of last year’s threat of rotating brown outs by power distribution companies allegedly due to simultaneous maintenance of power plants.
“We should be wary of this supposed scheduled maintenance of power plants as they are deliberately aimed at manipulating the prices of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM),” added Zarate.
He also called on the regulators, particularly the ERC “to keep their eyes wide open and put their ears on the ground and watch out for signs of price manipulation.”
“Since the maintenance of the Malampaya power facility was scheduled months ago, it is gravely suspicious why the DOE did not find alternative sources to compensate for it. Repairs and maintenance of power plants are scheduled events. There is no reason to hike rates whenever this is done. The effect of this is to constrict supply and therefore jack up prices in the spot market,” he said.
Zarate said the DOE and ERC sought to implement a transparent and proper energy plan to prevent price manipulation. However, he said the best solution to all of this would be to revert the energy sector back to a regulated environment and within the government’s control.
“As it is now, the private operators are the desicion-makers in the whole spectrum of the energy industry, including plant maintenance. They can create an artificial energy crisis if they want to,” Zarate said. source
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