Charge of the 'light brigades'

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/22/2010



For the past weeks, we have focused on the skyrocketing rate increases and leapfrogging net incomes of power companies. We highlighted Meralco’s 60-percent jump in profits from September last year of P7 billion to its target of P11 billion this year, which it even projects to surpass.

A week later, we zeroed in on Aboitiz Equity Venture’s 187-percent surge in net income to P16.8 billion, of which 80 percent came from its power generation ventures. This included the two power barges it bought at a huge bargain from the National Power Corp. (Napocor), which were later overpriced for Mindanao’s use and set as the basis for the island group’s new exorbitant electricity rates.

Last week, we highlighted the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm)’s petition for a rate increase for the “commodity” being auctioned through its trading floor to the power distribution networks; upon which we concluded that the profiteering “…just goes on and on, keeping our power rates the highest ever in Asia.

And yet, this week brought us a new shock report: the Lopez-owned First Gen Corp. reported a net income of $66.5 million (P2.8 billion), or P301 million in just nine months. First Gen said that its unit, Energy Development Corp. (EDC) — the Napocor geothermal company privatized under the tenure of Gloria Arroyo-appointed president Paul Aquino who then joined the privatized EDC as CEO (so much for the ethics of the Aquinos) — generated the gargantuan increase in its profits. According to First Gen president Giles Puno, “…earnings growth was delivered by EDC coming mainly from the increased contribution of the plants that it acquired last year. We are fortunate that these developments are aided by the positive sentiment and growth in our economy today.”

So, a national patrimony such as EDC, which gave us very cheap electricity, is privatized so that prices can be jacked up just to profit one family’s firm. The profit swell for the four privatized power operations here brings the additional burden on the Filipino power consumers from Luzon to Mindanao to at least P28.766 billion; and these are just four of several dozens upon dozens of privatized power companies we have counted.

This added burden to consumers would not have been there if privatization had never been inflicted on us. This is P28.766 billion less money for Filipinos who would otherwise have spent it on other needs and consumables — from food to medical care, to education and entertainment, to clothes and transportation costs, to more visits to the malls and trips to provincial relations, or a trip to the beaches to spread a little more money to the rural areas.

Privatization of power is not just sucking us dry, it is sucking us dead. How do we fight back? Let’s organize into “Light Brigades” to promote the struggle, starting with the “Lights Out” campaign to continue disseminating information.

Still, after this constant focus on the matter of our debilitating power costs, a moment of comic relief did come along. It started when a wayward cellphone rang inside the session hall of the Senate, which triggered the harangue of Miriam Defensor Santiago on the “lightweights” in Malacañang, or around what Linggoy Alcuaz calls the “happy hour kitchen Cabinet.”

Santiago does have good reason to pick up her lance and charge at the lightweights, particularly Secretary Armin Luistro, who is nothing but a factotum of the Catholic hierarchy and naturally expected to execute the agenda of the Catholic Church in a government that is supposed to be separate from any religious bias. Luistro was a key element in the mobilization against the duly-elected government of President Estrada; clearly, this Luistro is not a trustworthy individual to function for a secular, democratic state.

The only problem with Miriam’s assault on the “lightweight” brigade of the Palace is that she can also be charged for the same thing. One can only imagine what Santiago faced at that moment, paraphrasing from Tennyson, “Cellphone rings to the left of her, cellphone rings to the right of her; volleyed and thundered, stormed up with shot and shell” and so she had to sally forth too. Most of the three hundred or so of our legislators today can also be included in this category, which explains why this country continues down the crazy path of deterioration.

Neither the legislature nor Malacañang has done anything to alleviate the dire plight of the nation’s residential and industrial power consumers, making millions upon millions of us suffer along with the national economy from the highest power costs in Asia, if not the world.

Fortunately, there are hopeful signs in Congress that some individual legislators are standing up to be on the truly courageous “Light Brigade” that brings to light the prevarications of state regulatory agencies. One of them, a guest in our last GNN program, Rep. Bernadette “BH” Herrera, is standing up to the oligarchs’ predatory manipulation of water and power rates. She is ably joined by the amiable congressman from Navotas-Malabon, Toby Tiangco, who will also guest with us next. Of course, there’s our own “Light Brigade” that meets every Saturday and farms out everyday to keep the struggle going. So let us all charge forth with the light that will obliterate the power pirates’ darkness!

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on Global News Network, Destiny Cable, now Channel 8; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)