Vigil vs. PBR (Performance Based Rape)

CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/3-5/2011



My erstwhile colleague in OpinYon, Butch Junia, calls it the “Pahirap sa Bayan Rate.” But, given the fact that the Energy Regulatory Commission’s PBR or Performance Based Rate, a rate setting formula implemented in 2004, has given us the highest power rates in Asia, it’s more like a “Performance Based Rape.”

When the Supreme Court reaffirmed the now defunct 12-percent Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) mechanism in 2003 and, along with it, disallowed the Manila Electric Co. or Meralco’s pass-on of its corporate income taxes to consumers, ordering the Commission on Audit to open the power company’s books--through which Meralco was found to have overcharged consumers in at least two test audits--the ERC, in a seeming act of defiance and showing everyone “the finger,” concocted the 15.8-percent PBR.

Drastic action needed
Fast forward to the present and everybody, including the normally quiet and conservative business and labor groups, is now openly clamoring for drastic action against the massive price gouging in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (PCCI); the Philippine Steelmakers Association (PSA); the Philippine Exporters Confederation (PhilExport); the UP National Engineering Center; the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), including the Associated Labor Union (ALU); and, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), a group that ironically advocated privatization of the power industry, have all recently spoken out in a joint statement against the Philippines’ highest power cost in Asia. Specifically, they decried the absence of any “specific and strong action program or roadmap coming from the executive department” to address the current power rate crisis.

Democrito Mendoza of the TUCP, not always the most assertive labor leader, worked up the courage to “ask the Aquino administration to bring power rates down.” He was joined by the chief operating officer of PhilExport who, upon citing figures from the Department of Energy on the Philippines’ power rates at 24 US cents per kilowatt-hour compared to Thailand and Malaysia’s eight and seven US cents per kilowatt-hour, respectively, added that our power rates are “the biggest disincentive to the entry of new foreign direct investors to our shores.”

Meanwhile, Gerard R. Seno of the ALU demanded that Malacañang “make the necessary bold policy interventions, including the suspension and review of all pending power rate increase petitions in the Energy Regulatory Commission,” with TUCP’s Mendoza calling for the scrapping of the 15.8-percent PBR and the restoration of the 12-percent RoRB, stressing that high power rates eat up as much as 11 percent of workers’ income.

Concepcion’s lip service
Power company director Jojo Borja of Iligan Light, an advocate who has provided powerful, documented evidence against the ERC-Meralco tandem’s price gouging, called me about these news with enthusiasm. He, nonetheless, expressed frustration over the lip service that many so-called business leaders such as Raul Concepcion of the Oil Price Watch, a supposed consumer protection watchdog, give toward this fight.

Thus, it remains with the electricity consumers to wage the struggle against the Power Based Rate and the empowered institutions that were set up to serve and protect them but have used that power to turn against the very people who have bankrolled those institutions.

As I made sense of the torrent of news reports of complaints from the business and labor sectors last week, the day before “Pedring” hit Metro Manila, an idea occurred to me: We, the anti-PBR/ERC-Meralco campaigners, must strike while the iron is hot. We should focus the diverse sources of rage into one central target that will force a dismantling of the PBR. And that can only be achieved by putting the Chief Executive on the spot.

We should hold Noynoy Aquino entirely responsible and demand a solution from him, just as what the TUCP, PhilExport, and others have done. But the action that I believe will achieve this is a vigil, a continuous one, right at the Freedom Park across Malacañang.

Freedom Park vigil
I broached this to several of our colleagues on the morning of “Pedring” and it caught the imagination of many, including Kit Kilatis, Jojo Borja, and company. So, while the country was busy coping with the floods and winds, we braved the elements to meet at this Quezon Ave. restaurant to discuss the more devastating power abuse that’s been wreaking havoc on our national economy and lives for over a decade now.

I had already been preparing the equipment for the vigil even as I discussed it with various people. I have started auditing the tents as well as tried securing the commitment of restaurants and other establishments near the Freedom Park to allow vigil participants access to their toilets, which is a very fundamental requirement. When I broached the idea over my radio program, taxi drivers, students, and others liked it as the 24/7 vigil affords them the convenience of going at their free time.

We’ll set up a tent, with streamers and placards calling for the junking of the PBR and EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act)--the law that privatized the power sector. We’ll expose the ongoing ERC-Meralco collusion of price gouging the nation on a massive scale and demand a return to the 12-percent RoRB.

Visit at your own pace
Of course, we would need a regular sound system and a core group to maintain the vigil while others are being mobilized to visit and show their support. Regular presscons will also have to be made. We should expect thousands to visit at their own pace--each instance becoming an opportunity to educate the public further on the issues.

It is most likely that we can set it up by the first week of October; and since the Freedom Park doesn’t require a permit to stage such activities, I don’t see how the authorities would be able to obstruct us.

Let’s get together and support this vigil with firm resolve against the ERC-Meralco “Performance Based Rape” of electricity consumers!

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)