Western Visayans in uproar over Napocor rate hike, etc.

Never have Western Visayans risen such a clamor on two points over the reported power shortage. One in Negros Occidental and Oriental. The other, the expected massive shortage and higher power rates in Panay and Guimaras.

The case of Negros Occidental is the ERC provincial authority to raise the Napocor basic rates by 46 centavos per kilowatt hour by P1.1460 for the Visayas.

Key officials of Negros Occidental, including Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco and Vice Gov. Emilio Yulo III are expected to converge in Cebu Thursday for the hearing on the ERC controversial order. They will be joined by Rep. Monico Puentevella and officials for the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (3rd, Negros Occ.) dubbed yesterday the meeting or ERC hearing as a moro moro, pointing out that the implementation of the power rates increases by the Napocor already took effect last Feb. 26.

The Thursday hearing, he said, is just a front act or a “consuelo de bobo” of the Napocor management to its stakeholders.

Business groups, Lacson contended, cannot move freely to maintain the industry and maintain employment. This will hit bad the consumers,” the solon pointed out.

Why the provisional increase? “Lacson asked, pointing out that a meeting has to be conducted this week among the stakeholders.

“We in Congress are awaiting for the unified resolution of public officials and stakeholders so we can act on it,” Lacson stressed.

Puentevella, on the other hand, said as House vice chair of the Energy committee, he will move that this matter be reviewed because he considers it very “untimely.”

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental supported the move by Zayco opposing the power rate increase because it would be passed on to consumers.

Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia also said he is sending Dr. Roger Balo, the city administrator, and lawyer Vicen­te Petierre III to present the Bacolod position paper.

But the more serious challenge is the scheduled turnover of the Panay 2 Power Diesel Plants (PPDP) to SPC Island Power Corp. (SIPC) formerly Salcon Power Corp. on March 26.

Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Jr. City Mayor Jerry Trenas and presidential assistant for Western Visayas Raul Banias are expected to appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to delay the turnover to the SIPC.

The Regional Development Council instead proposed that the two power plants operations be continued by the Napocor. Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez, chair of the RDC, also endorsed the position of the Iloilo officials.

Treñas said the RDC wishes President Arroyo to allow Napocor to continue operating the PDCP until a new power contract between SIPC and the power distributors is okayed by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

SIPC acquired the two plants last year for $5.86 million. The package included a 22 MW diesel plants in Bohol.

The Napocor is supplying the electricity of the seven electric cooperatives in Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, and Capiz as well as Iloilo.

Well, the outcry against the two increase has become more strident. Worse, because it would affect the stakeholders at a time of the global economic crisis.

Well, we can just hope that, as I had pointed out earlier, the government should not let its left hand do what the right hand does not know.

ADDENDUM. I had noted in past columns the alarming number of crime cases in Dumaguete City, the capital of Negros Oriental. Well, it seems that Oriental Negros provincial chief Augusto Marquez Jr. recently warned Dumaguete City police chief Leopoldo Cabanag that he may be relieved should he fail to come up with a substantial performance by the end of the month. As I had earlier observed, most of these unsolved crimes involved foreigners as victims. That’s something that must alarm Cabanag as it has the city residents who have been scoring local law enforcement agencies for the crime wave … That may also be borne out by the fact that the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce led by Councilor Manuel Sagarbarria, recently expressed alarm over the rise of shooting and robbery incidents in the city. It is worth noticing that eight poblacion barangays in Dumaguete recently met businessmen from the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, led by Alex Sy, and the Oriental Negros Business Development Foundation headed by Greg Uymatiao to tackle the problem and how to solve the rising tide of holdups and robberies even in the city’s business district.