Probe of Napocor corruption sought

A party-list representative asked yesterday that the appropriate congressional committees begin investigating massive mismanagement and corruption in the state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Rep. Florencio "Bem" Noel of An Waray said the mishandling of Napocor over the years had contributed in part to the company’s large national debt.

"Corrupt practices and mismanagement bled the power firm dry. What made matters worse was the fact that management was given a free hand to borrow funds. That partly accounted for the Napocor’s huge debt," he said.

He said it is the public that is now paying dearly in terms of high electricity costs for Napocor abuses.

He pointed out that such abuses include the decision of top officials to retire, pay themselves huge benefits using about P13 billion in loans, and then rehire themselves with their fat salaries.

"The mishandling of this agency has to stop. Otherwise, it will be a vicious cycle," he added.

Napocor is the top loser among government-owned and-controlled corporations. In 2004, it lost more than P110 billion. The year before that, it reported losses of more than P80 billion.

The second biggest loser is the National Food Authority, whose officials had once boasted that their agency was not intended to make money but to lose it.

A report of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) last week blamed President Arroyo for a huge part of Napocor’s debt, which it estimated at $9.1 billion (more than P470 billion) as of the middle of last year.

According to FDC chairman Ana Marie Nemenzo, the President’s order for Napocor to cut its rates by 80 centavos a year before the 2004 presidential elections resulted in huge losses, prompting the agency to resort to more borrowing.

Nemenzo said the order was meant to earn "brownie points" for Mrs. Arroyo among voters.

Official data obtained by FDC showed that between 1979 and 1986, during the Marcos regime, Napocor’s debt rose from $1.3 billion to $3.6 billion.

At the end of the watch of former President Corazon Aquino, the firm’s debt had dropped to $2.9 billion.

The Aquino administration sued Westinghouse, the American firm that was awarded the contract for the $2.2-billion mothballed Bataan nuclear plant. The contractor was forced to eventually settle the case out of court. — Jess Diaz