Press Release 29 January 2014 Malacanang-backed consultation on EPIRA amendments insufficient Total scrapping of EPIRA the only acceptable remedy A LABOR group questioned the motives of the Department of Energy (DOE)-initiated Electricity Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) consultations and claims that the review process is part and parcel of the mind-conditioning efforts of the administration. The review of the EPIRA came only after an admission of its failure was expressed publicly by no less than Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma last Sunday. The presidential Spokesperson called the EPIRA defective because there were provisions in the law that ran counter to its intents. The group says that the Palace is trying to muddle the issue by amending the EPIRA, instead of totally scrapping the much-hated decree which brought about the deregulation and privatization of the power sector. The consultative process which the DOE kicked-off yesterday is a series of discussions meant to gather inputs from stakeholders nationwide and will be concluded on February 12 in another consultative dialogue. The maneuver of the DOE was the department’s response to insistent calls to repeal EPIRA which stemmed from Meralco’s announcement in early December to implement a “historic” price hike. The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) contends that the sudden change of mind of Palace officials is “highly dubious” since Secretary Coloma made statements in the past, in defense of Meralco’s price hike, even calling it “reasonable”. Meanwhile, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte also argued that the Executive needed a “magic wand” first to address the power hike. The change of perspectives came only after the Supreme Court justices heard the oral arguments on its issuance of a temporary restraining order on Meralco planned staggered increases. Even Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Serano went on to profess that no actual evidence is needed to demonstrate the fact that collusion between Meralco and the generation companies led to the sudden increase of electricity prices. “We only need to predict the behavior of the players in the market,” she reportedly said during the hearing. On the consultations’ intentions, “This administration is trying to hit two birds with one stone. They’re washing their hands for their defense of the systematic large-scale profiteering for the past 13 years and at the same time, they want us to believe that they are in favor of reforming the industry and veer away from its well-entrenched profit-oriented system ,” said BMP leader, Gie Relova. “We should not expect much from these consultations. The DOE and its Malacanang bosses will be eventually exposing their own selves because amending EPIRA is far and wide apart from a repealing the whole decree. The defects of EPIRA does not lie in its contradicting provisions; such defects are but manifestations of a completely erroneous and anti-poor framework, which are the privatization of government power assets and deregulation, wherein the State crippled itself by disallowing intervention even in times of massive public outcries,” he added. Besides the repealing of the EPIRA, the BMP also bats for the establishment of a regulatory body fully-democratized and reformed, borne of the ashes of the tainted Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). The regulatory body will distinctively operate under the direct participation of the basic sectors of society as the majority bloc in the composition of the Commission. The group also demands the active participation of the government in the industry by buying back the largest players in the generation and transmission components of the industry in order to control the market from predatory pricing. The BMP says that the first three must strategically lead to the return of the industry to its original public service orientation through a nationalization program of the said industry. “The consumers most specially the poor will never be assured of protection and consumer welfare not unless all vestiges of corporate control in public utilities such as power, oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will be squashed. Corporations will always have the inherent tendency to pass all expenses to the end-consumer, granting power players guaranteed windfall profits by a government tasked by the people to protect them. The government must wrest control at all cost,” Relova insisted. Besides the reforms, the labor leader also said that their group would seek judicial reparations for the 13 burdensome years the EPIRA has caused the poor. Relova adamantly demanded that, “Someone must be held accountable for the legitimization of systematic profiteering by industry players, the collusion between the ERC and distribution giant, Meralco and the national government’s inability to protect the welfare of the public since the EPIRA was enacted into law.” ### Contact person: Gie Relova- BMP NCRR, Secretary General 0915-2862555
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 02:11:13 +0000
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