Businessmen say power rate hike uncalled for

MANILA, Philippines – Businessmen have expressed concern over the looming power rate increase in November, saying it would exacerbate the sufferings of ordinary Filipinos as well as turn off foreign investors.

“It is uncalled for. We are all suffering,” Francis Chua, vice president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), told The STAR in an interview.

“The timing is very bad. Maybe they can hold off their decision,” he said.

The Energy Regulatory Commission approved on Tuesday a two-year-old petition of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to raise basic rates by as much 36 percent beginning next month.

Chua said power firms should do their own belt tightening and exhaust all means before resorting to rate increases.

The power companies, he claimed, were not even able to justify their rate adjustments.

Moreover, a further increase in power rates, Chua warned, will scare away potential investors.

Chua explained that because of the worldwide economic crunch, multinational companies are looking for cheaper places to do business. He said foreigners consider the Philippines a good outsourcing destination because of the relatively cheaper cost of doing business in the country. He said the perception might change because of the impending power rate hike.

Vietnam is emerging as a tough competitor of the Philippines in business process outsourcing.

Industrialist Raul Concepcion said he would ask the ERC to stop the implementation of the recently approved basic distribution rate hike of Meralco under the performance-based rate mechanism.

“I will meet with ERC chairman Zenaida Ducut. I will question it. If necessary, I will file a petition to stop it,” Concepcion told reporters yesterday.

Concepcion said Consumer and Oil Price Watch (COPW), as far back as June 26, 2000, had always been opposed to the performance-based rate setting methodology for Meralco which was approved by then ERC chairman Rodolfo Albano.    – With Donnabelle Gatdula, Iris Gonzales