A growing movement

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/15/2010



Even as those photo ops between Clinton and PeNoy hit the newsstands, in aid of the massive PR spin on the US ’ support for its little puppet amid its dwindling influence in this part of the world, the conditions for creating an explosion of awareness on the true crisis in Filipinos’ lives are multiplying.

Most importantly, the middle class is now getting more and more energized in our fight against the blatant (and unprecedented) political and economic abuses in the privatized electricity, water, and infrastructure utilities of this nation.

One indication of this growing involvement is the flurry of Internet exchanges on power issues. An example is Edna’s (surname withheld) e-mail to Pete Ilagan of Nasecore (National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, an anti-power plunder consumer group):

“Pete, you might want to check if ERC is actually adjusting the economic indices used in the calculation of the ARR of Meralco and other DUs under the PBR. These are the (a) Peso-US$ exchange rate, (b) Philippine CPI, and (c) US CPI. ERC is supposed to adjust them yearly.

“I am attaching a table that I made showing the forecast indices vs the actual. Note that for the Peso-US$ exchange rate, the forecasts are higher than the actual. For the US CPI, except for one year where actual was higher, the ERC forecasts were also higher than actual. If they’re not corrected, they will increase Meralco’s profit because these indices, especially the exchange rate and US CPI, are used to calculate the capex and depreciation costs, the major components of the rate base and ARR.”

If the indices used by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) are regularly higher than the actual, then it is to be expected that it will always grant its approval to higher rates for the power generation, transmission and distribution firms that petition without fail for rate increases.

Since the ERC is invariably either derelict or in collusion with those petitioners, the public will never see the light on these outrageous distortions. Citizens and consumer groups hardly have any funds, but are fueled by their indignation over this naked manipulation, abuse, and exploitation by the utility regulatory agencies in the power sector, aside from the MWSS, LWUA and the Toll Regulatory Commission in others.

Citizens themselves are funding the necessary expenses, such as lawyers’ appearances at the ERC and in the courts. One donor is a former city mayor in Metro Manila who does not want to be named.

The latest initiative is beginning to bring together a renewed focus for the different crusaders, such as EmPower, Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), and Kaakbay, which have been at it since the start of the decade. FDC and EmPower have signified agreement to revive their own “lights out” call (switching off lights at some appointed time of the week), which were highly successful in select communities that involved hundreds of thousands of families. Even as other issues have sidetracked their campaigns, they are more than ready to reconnect with the broader effort this time around.

In December, the FDC is spearheading a nationwide summit on this crusade to be held in Baguio, as I was told by Job Bordamonte of FDC during our discussion on my TV program. I’m very excited about this and this column aims to start disseminating the information. There have been ebbs and flows in the struggle but a crescendo is building again.

Still, I got an indication of the attitude of the masses to this problem of exorbitant electricity costs. One of my former media staff, Glecy, whom I was with when she was asked about her community’s take on this issue, said, “Wala naman kaming magagawa.” (We can’t do anything about it.)

This sense of helplessness and hopelessness is what the oligarchs and their media are banking on as they continue to instill this into the masses’ subconscious through progressive impoverishment, fascist suppression of past protests (joined in by the masa), media blackout of power news through entertainment distraction, plus ERC connivance to frustrate every legitimate effort to thwart the abuse by the power oligarchs.

The critical situation prevails from RP’s north to south, and this column has tried to reflect it all. As of this writing, news of four-hour blackouts in the Visayas.

I was informed that in the Negros islands and towns such as Sipalay, four-hour power outages have become prevalent. In Mindanao, our decade-long crusader there is under threat of assassination. Yes, he fears for his life there for the exposés he has made on the IPPs’ (independent power producers) many abuses; and for this reason he has been reluctant to take a high profile in media on the issue.

I have been telling his friends that his security can only be assured when he comes out fighting a total war — including becoming an anti-power plunder celebrity. I hope he takes my advice as we are ready to help him all the way. The good thing is that he has been linking with us in the Metro Manila networks. As I said, the movement is growing again — so the masa need not feel helpless anymore. Remember: “Lights Out Mondays,” 7 to 7:10 p.m.

(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 “Power Consumers’ Legislative Champions: Reps. Bernadette Herrera and Toby Tiangco,” on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)