Akbayan party-list lawmakers have joined the call for a Department of Justice (DoJ) probe on the alleged collusion between several power firms and agencies which caused Meralco’s sharp generation charge increase this December.
Reps. Walden Bello and Barry Gutierrez said they affixed their signatures to a petition asking the DoJ’s Office for Competition to carry out an investigation on the matter. The petition was filed Monday morning.
Also expressing their support to the DoJ letter were social activists, including economist Maitet Diokno of the Center for Power Issues and Initiatives (CPII), Wilson Fortaleza of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and NAGKAISA, and Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) President Ricardo Reyes.
In seeking the investigation, the petitioners pointed to Executive Order No. 45 series of 2011 which designates DoJ as the “Competition Authority” in the country.
Created under this EO was the Office for Competition which can receive any form of complaint as a basis for inquiry or further study on possible violations of laws prohibiting cartelization, monopolies, or combinations in restraint of trade as defined in competition laws.
The petitioners availed of this remedy after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), after conducting neither public hearings nor a probe into allegations of market abuse, approved en toto the amount of P4.15 per kilowatt hour (kWh) that Meralco can recover from its purchase of power this month due to the scheduled shutdown of Malampaya natural gas platform.
“The expected and scheduled maintenance of Malampaya notwithstanding—an event Meralco was aware of more than six months before its occurrence—and Meralco’s claim that such was not anticipated, and the unscheduled shutdown of several power plants that resulted to Meralco’s recourse to expensive electricity from the WESM, are information that point to a contrived scenario of extreme short-term shortage of electricity for the purpose of raising the price of electricity beyond what it would cost to generate it,” said the petitioners.
They pointed to possible collusion by Meralco, First Gas Power Corporation, San Miguel Corporation, Kepco Philippines, Aboitiz Power, Team Energy Corporation, AES Philippines and DMCI Holdings, Incorporated when their plants went into what they described as “simultaneous and unscheduled shutdown,” leading to more load deficits in the Luzon grid which forced Meralco to buy a more expensive power from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM.
According to the petitioners, the power rate hike will only add to the economic burden of end-users and consumers who are still reeling from typhoon Yolanda, and at the same time face the stresses of fuel price and Metro Rail Transit fare hikes.
The group vowed to escalate their campaign for the overhaul of the Electric Power Reform Act (EPIRA), which they blame for the unabated increase in power rates. source
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