GMA blames high electricity rates for RP’s poverty

Pulling up her bootstraps for another legislative battle, President Arroyo yesterday blamed the high cost of electricity as one of the causes of widespread poverty in the country and proffered the long-stalled Omnibus Power Sector Reform bill as a viable solution.

To muster congressional and popular support for the controversial measure, the President is marshaling not only the traditional tools of congressional lobbying but mass media as well.

"Part of the reason why we’re a poor country is the high cost of electricity," the President said in a radio and television commercial produced by the Department of Energy (DOE).

"If electricity is expensive, then prices of goods are also expensive but there is a domino effect here because business suffers too. If nobody can afford their products, they close shop, factories are shut down and jobs are lost... we all suffer," she said.

The solution, she said, is the enactment of the OPSR bill which would supposedly bring down the cost of electricity.

"I urge our legislators to pass this bill into law. You can help. Text or e-mail me your support," she said, utilizing the TEXTGMA facility cellphone firms provided her for receiving text messages from the public.

Her e-mail addresses are listed as <[email protected]> or <[email protected]>. TEXTGMA numbers are listed as (0919)898-4621 to 23 or (0917)839-8462, (0917)898-5462, (0917)898-2562.

The public appeal and media blitz are apparently meant to pressure legislators to pass the OPSR bill once it convenes in special session on May 29-31.

Sen. John Osmeña, chairman of the Senate panel to the bicameral conference committee, said he is ready to support the administration in pushing the bill which he described as "long overdue."

He said the Senate has been deliberating on the measure for five long years and the current Congress had already prepared no less than five drafts of the bicameral committee report.

"The bottom line is, the country needs the power bill. We have to show political will. There will never be a law if we will try to please everybody," Osmeña said.

Osmeña, who recently said he was "dissociating" himself from the opposition, said the country could not afford to be without a power sector reform bill during this time of economic crisis.

The moment the OPSR bill is enacted into law, he said the country would immediately get a $3-billion loan from the Asian Development and another $2 billion after three years.

But Osmeña’s and the administration’s position contradicts the position of opposition Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who even used the high cost of electricity as an issue for his apparently failing re-election bid.

Enrile holds that the passage of the OPSR bill in its present form would allow independent power producers to charge fees that would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills.

Although Enrile, who ran under the opposition’s Puwersa ng Masa coalition, is still trailing in the ongoing tabulation of votes for the Senate, he is expected to participate in the special session next week.

Under the OPSR bill, the power generation facilities of the state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) will be sold to the private sector which is expected to lead to lower electricity bills.

The privatization of the Napocor is expected to free government subsidies and help cut a budget deficit that could reach P225 billion this year.

But the opposition claims that instead of lowering electricity bills, Napocor’s privatization would lead to increased rates as what happened with the deregulation of the oil industry.

But Energy Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said power sector reforms undertaken in the United Kingdom and Argentina led to power bill reductions by as much as 25 to 44 percent.

Camacho admitted, however, the present form of the OPSR bill would remove "cross-subsidies" previously enjoyed by households which were taken from higher rates charged on industrial and commercial users.

"The real long-term solution to the power rate problem is to address the high generating cost. That is why we think the OPSR bill is the longer term solution to our power problem and why it needs to be passed quickly," he said.

The opposition, however, disagreed with the administration and labeled the OPSR bill as "anti-consumer."

Opposition spokesman Jesus Crispin Remulla said the OPSR bill "contains onerous provisions that would lead to skyrocketing electricity bills" and "the Arroyo administration had not even bothered to study these concerns."

Remulla also lambasted an apparent attempt by the administration to "raise the brownout bogey in the year 2005 to convince the public to support his highly questionable, anti-consumer measure."

Allies to withdraw support over bill

Multisectoral groups have also warned Mrs. Arroyo that they would immediately cut their support for her administration if she refuses to stop the passage of the OPSR bill.

The rural-based Bantay Kuryente Laban sa Monopolyo and the National Federation of Electric Consumers urged the President to junk the "highly-defective measure" and let the incoming Congress pass it after more debates.

"What is wrong in waiting for a few more months for the new Congress to re-study the controversial provisions of the bill and let it pass without incurring the people’s wrath," the groups said in a joint statement.

The groups claimed the bill was "railroaded by a pro-rich, pro-monopoly" Senate committee headed by Osmeña who allegedly masterminded the passage of the bill in collaboration with interest groups in the power sector.

"Why rush into passing a highly-controversial bill that would rupture the core of the administration’s mass-base support when it could very well ask the next Congress... to re-study and re-evaluate the contentious provisions," the groups’ statement read.

"Instead of de-monopolizing the power industry sector, the bill would result in the death of small-time power producers and distributors. Where is the merit in liberating the cash-strapped Napocor from its sorry state if the people would suffer," the groups said.