Palace urged to tell real score on power woes

The Philippine government must be forthright, honest and transparent about the problems besetting our power industry. These are mainly the recent increase in power rates and the increased frequency of brownouts happening in many parts of the country, said Antonio G. Hombrebueno, chairman of the advocacy group Foundation for National Development (FND).

The FND chief is referring to the government’s habit of "sweeping the real problems under the rug" such as the lack of investments in the power sector, the unavoidable rise of power rates due to rising prices of fuels worldwide, and the pervasive inability of our people to afford paying for basic services due to marginal incomes.

"The government must now break free from this destructive and divisive attitude of pitting businesses against the people. Both need each other to be able to weather the power and economic crisis that is looming on the horizon," Hombrebueno pointed out.

"Now is the time for the President to display leadership and tell our people the real facts and what needs to be done. Blame-throwing and finger pointing have no place on a troubled ship," Hombrebueno declared.

"We must tell our people the real score. The truth is power rates must rise because of our electricity sector’s high dependence on using imported fuels – particularly oil and coal. This is compounded by the incessant deterioration of the peso which is obviously a result of government piling up huge foreign debts being used to ironically keep power rates low," he added.

The recent increases g ranted by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to the National Power Corp. (Napocor) were due to the hike in its generation costs accumulated over the past few months. Much of these increases were likewise due to soaring costs of fuel worldwide and the deterioration of the peso which to date have not been reflected in their selling prices, the Foundation said.

Hombrebueno noted that one persistent problem in the industry is that Napocor’s rates have been kept artificially low. "Continued suppression of Napocor’s power rates will definitely sink the country deeper into a quicksand of debts which the government can no longer pay," he said.