By: Villamor C. Visaya Jr.
(Published in its print edition on August 24 – 30, 2024)
TAKE it from former opposition lawmaker Carlos Isagani Zarate as he castigated the series of power rate hikes by companies such as Meralco.
His words, “Obviously artificial and contrived rate increases,” clearly show how power generating companies take advantage of their being a public utility facility.
For Meralco alone, it imposes a three-peso to three-peso-and-fifty-centavo per kilowatt-hour increase in the past periods.
Clearly, some unscrupulous officials at the Energy Regulatory Commission and at the Office of the President have been “conniving” for defending a profit-oriented initiative of big companies. The welfare of the people has been set aside for their own sake. Instead of keeping their eyes wide open and putting their ears on the ground for price manipulation, they are in cahoots instead with power providers.
To think that the ERC has never implemented an energy plan to alleviate the effects of the power rate hike.
The ERC “gods” and their cohorts must be investigated for this mess.
Flashback: Threats of rotating brownouts due to simultaneous maintenance of power plants swirl in the past years. There was then a suspected manipulation of the prices of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
Calls for resignation of the ERC executives mothball as they allegedly “hastily and unjustly approved power rate increases in just a day.
See, the rate increase in Metro Manila would surely affect the price of commodities being sold all over the country. Why? Most manufacturers produce goods in the metro areas and deliver them to the provinces and cities. The burden of a high-power rate will eventually be passed on to the people.
It is better that the Supreme Court will issue a restraining order to halt the imposition of high generation charge.
But this is not the end. The ERC must be probed for their accountability.#
