Odd man out

HIDDEN AGENDA By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes (The Philippine Star) 
Updated July 23, 2014 - 12:00am

Power industry leaders are giving the thumbs up to government’s creation of a multisectoral task force to study ways to reduce the price of electricity.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla’s mandate for this task force is to “evaluate current breakdown/components of electricity and identify factors affecting them, conduct multisectoral public consultations nationwide to present their findings; and identify ways and measures to help reduce the price of electricity and ensure its efficiency.”

The creation of the task force was an offshoot of the May 31, 2013 dialogue in Malacañang in which “labor groups proposed the creation of a dedicated group, which will include the labor sector and consumers groups representatives, to monitor, discuss and resolve issues affecting the power supply and affordability of electricity in the country.”

In light of the very important role of this group, it goes without saying that its members should be those who truly represent our interest.

Some groups are questioning the naming of Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA) former president David Relito Tan, who after his messy legal battles here and abroad, managed to recycle himself as a self-styled industry “expert” at the height of last semester’s power crisis by blaming certain industry players for the electricity mess, on the basis of his alleged biased and distorted facts about the Philippine power situation.

The multisectoral task force will be headed by Dr. Adoracion Navarro, a senior fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) who is on the Devex list of 40 global development leaders in Metro Manila under 40 years of age. She will be represented in the task force by PIDS president Gilberto Llanto.

Other members include Secretary Petilla, businessman Raul Concepcion of Gov’t Watch; and representatives from the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FFCCCI), PIPPA, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), National Consumers Affairs Council (NCAC), National Federation of Women’s Club of the Philippines (NFWCP), Coalition for Consumer Protection and Welfare Inc. (CCPW), Matuwid na Singil sa Kuryente Consumer Alliance Inc. (MSKCA), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) and NAGKAISA (United).

But industry watchers are raising their eyebrows as to why MSK is one of five consumer groups in this task force, given its questionable status as a functioning NGO.

Tan is a task force member in his capacity as MSK president. While Tan was at one time PIPPA president and is thus supposedly knowledgeable about the complex energy sector, since then, he has been hounded by complaints or cases.

According to SEC records, two of MSK’a key officers—corporate secretary Lorna Asilo and treasurer Videt Ursula Cusi—both certified under oath that this NGO “has not been in operation since its incorporation in 2011 up to the present,”

So why has Tan been blessed to be in the company of distinguished industry leaders in the task force when he is representing a fledgling consumer group that is actually dormant, as attested to by its own key officers?

And how about Tan’s record as an energy executive?

On June 17, 2010, the Court of Appeals ordered Tan and his Power One Group of Companies (formerly Edison Industries Inc.) to pay retrenched workers who earlier filed an illegal dismissal case against Tan’s firm before the NLRC.

There is also a case at the Supreme Court filed by Mid-Islands Power Corp. against Power One and Tan over their power supply accord; as well as another one at the ERC pertaining to Power One’s deal with the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperatve Inc. (ORMECO).

There is another for “fraudulent intent” which Philippine National Bank (PNB) filed against Tan and Edison-Hubbard Corp. in the San Francisco Superior Court involving a $7 million unsettled bank loan. The court ruled that debtor intended to defraud his creditors and/or the trustee.

There had also been criticisms about Tan’s commentaries regarding last December’s electricity price shock, since they ignored ERC’s March 3 order to WESM operator Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) to re-run or recompute the spot market rates during the Malampaya shutdown on the belief that the prices then were unreasonable and irrational as a result of “market abuse.”

With Petilla’s directive for task force members to undertake “complete dissemination of all discussions and agreements during the conduct of dialogues,” there are now apprehensions that Tan, given his bias against certain major power industry players, might turn these nationwide consultations into mere launching pads for his attacks on his pet peeves in the power sector.

Global mess

It looks like not all is well within the ranks of the powerful European pressure group Greenpeace.

While European pressure group Greenpeace is waging its war against Filipino scientists here, it looks like there’s war within its own posh headquarters in Europe.

Greenpeace has gone all out in the last two decades to prevent the local science community led by UP Los Banos from introducing to Filipino farmers certain crop varieties that do not require chemical pesticides to ward off pests.

In fact, it is engaged in legal battle before the Supreme Court (SC) as it attempts to stifle a bid by Filipino scientists and farmers to get a go-signal from the High Court for the resumption of field trials for the pesticide-free eggplant variety called Bt Talong.

Back home in Europe, Greenpeace’s office has been rocked by conflict following major discontent aired by its senior executives. The row was fueled by reports that Greenpeace executive Pascal Hustings flies between the group’s Amsterdam office and his home in the wealthy state of Luxembourg several times a month. This will obviously worry Greenpeace’s donors.

Another proof of Greenpeace’s huge money chest is the major financial loss it reportedly suffered after its finance officer bet wrongly on the weak Eurodollar, resulting in losses amounting to some three million pounds sterling.

Greenpeace has so much money that it engages in foreign exchange market and corporate stocks speculation, while giving us the image of volunteers fighting to save the whale.

If the media reports are true, then Greenpeace’s strength may have also become its debacle. It is now suffering from the problems that many do-good organizations which end up amassing money, have.

Despite these debacles besetting its swank Amsterdam headquarters, Greenpeace’s money remains the biggest threat to our local science community.

That huge financial arsenal will continue to stand in the way of biotechnology research. That arsenal will continue to finance public relations and activist operations, as well as expensive legal suits.

That’s bad news for our scientists and farmers. source

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