Junked  

In the alternate universe leftwing agitators inhabit, no movement in prices happen. If prices moved, this will have to be the outcome of some evil conspiracy between government and capitalists to make life more miserable for the masses.

In November 2013, a confluence of factors inflated generation charges. To mitigate its effects, Meralco offered to stagger the price adjustments for its consumers. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved the staggered increases subject to confirmation and post-verification proceedings prescribed under the Automatic Generation Rate Adjustment (AGRA) rules.

Bayan Muna, the leftwing group rejected by voters in the last elections, filed a petition in court to declare the adjustments invalid because they were harmful to consumers. Included in the suit were electricity distributor Meralco and the ERC.

This week, the Supreme Court finally junked the petition filed by Bayan Muna.

In its ruling, the Court found that “(w)ithout question, the ERC acted within the confines of its regulatory powers.” The Court understood the necessity for the price adjustments that were made.

Our energy sector is a heavily regulated and highly competitive industry. The Court ruling affirms the ground rules for the operation of the many players in this industry. The EPIRA Law specifies those ground rules.

If the leftist agitators want prices and charges to be defined by political fiat rather than by market forces, they might begin by setting aside the principal law that governs our power sector. If they do that, everything will become uncertain. Investors will not come in to modernize our energy sector. Government, expected by leftists to hold prices constant, must subsidize energy heavily and incur massive debts.

In November 2013, an unhealthy confluence of factors forced a spike in the electricity spot market. The Malampaya facility went on a scheduled maintenance shutdown that deactivated our natural gas plants. These plants account for 30 percent of Luzon power requirements.

The scheduled maintenance shutdown was compounded by the unscheduled outages of several other generation plants. Electricity supply tightened and the law of supply and demand forced up prices.

The outages were unplanned, of course. No generating company would want to shut down its plant and incur opportunity costs. At that time, as it still is today, our electricity sector operates with tight reserves and is reliant on old plants. Outages happen.

Meralco did well to shield consumers from the price shock by offering to stagger adjustments made necessary by sharply higher generation charges. The ERC was correct to approve of the staggered price adjustments.

No one is happy with more expensive power. But market conditions dictate the costs. The energy companies and the industry regulator can only help mitigate the unavoidable price shocks.

The Supreme Court ruling affirms the rules of the game in the power sector. This will be reassuring to the investors, which we desperately need to help us build additional and more efficient generating capacity.

The worst thing that could happen to our energy sector is for the leftists, who are driven principally by opportunities to indulge in irresponsible propaganda, to succeed in introducing uncertainty in our supply and pricing processes.

Black hole

Our nation’s future is in real trouble. Not only are we chronically unable to feed ourselves, we are also incapable of educating our young.

We have all read about the dismal rankings of our students in international surveys on the core competencies.

For every 100 eligible children, 94 will enter primary school. After completing elementary education, only 39 of them will have minimum proficiency in Reading. Only 34 of the will have minimum proficiency in Mathematics.

In the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies, over four-fifths of Filipino Grade 4 test-takers fell below minimum proficiency in mathematics and science. In the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, at least 83 percent of the country’s Grade 5 students scored below reading and mathematics standards. In the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment study, 81 percent of the country’s 15-year-old students scored below minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics while 73 percent did not meet standards in science.

All in all, Filipino students rank at the bottom or near-bottom in each learning domain assessed.

But wait, there is more. In a conversation with Levi Espinosa of Rex Education, I found out that these studies established that students with the lowest competencies were most inclined to work as teachers. We have a problem.

Rex Education, as part of its advocacy, prepared a 10-point agenda to improve the overall learning environment for our young learners. Our Department of Education must pay close attention to the proposals, especially those that deal with creating a total learning environment.

Both our agriculture and our education system are like black holes threatening to eat up the nation’s future. The new administration understands the scale and complexity of the problems plaguing both. This is why President Marcos is personally handling the agriculture portfolio and Vice President Sara Duterte leads the Department of Education.

We have yet to see clear signs of dramatic rethinking happening at both the DA and the DepEd. We will be patient with our two highest officials. The problems in both areas do need detailed study.

But sometime soon, preferably before the SONA, we will need to see both leaders deploying strong management teams to the two critical departments. With all the other concerns they have to attend to, much will depend on the management teams they are able to form.

These teams must work urgently to set the momentum for reform.