Central Luzon groups hit Palace on PPA

ANGELES CITY — Hundreds of people joined mass actions and caravans in four Central Luzon provinces yesterday to protest the failure of Malacañang to scrap the purchase power adjustment (PPA) from their electric bills.

Mass actions were held simultaneously in Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. A caravan snaked through five towns in Pampanga, while prayer rallies were staged in various parts of Bulacan with the participants later proceeding to Malolos for a bigger rally.

The protesters, led by the People Opposed to Warrantless Electric Rates-Central Luzon (Power-CL) and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), said in a statement that President Arroyo "has become powerless to scrap the onerous and highly anomalous PPA simply because Washington forbids her from doing so."

They said the PPA imposed by local power cooperatives in Central Luzon often makes up more than 50 percent of their electricity bills.

The protesters also decried the Arroyo administration’s move to link Bayan and the party-list group Bayan Muna to the New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front.

"This, too, was dictated by Washington," the statement said.

"This signals the start of an open clampdown on legal organizations and their leaders in an effort to preempt the growing public outcry against the President’s rabidly pro-US and anti-Filipino stance," it added. — Ding Cervantes