The national plundering goes on

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/17/2012



It is a news item that gets little notice as it does not relate to the impeachment hearings. But if the government and media were truly alert, they would have spotted it right from the get-go.

The claimed “uprating” of the Agus VI hydroelectric plant in Mindanao, to be undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), is geared toward increasing the facility’s “output to augment limited supply on the island.” This was the official announcement from Josefina Patricia Asirit, undersecretary of the Department of Energy (DoE), who said that the “uprating… needs to be presented to the Neda (National Economic Development Authority) Board.”

Simply put, uprating means Agus VI will soon be able to produce 62 megawatts (MW) from its present 50. The question is: Why only now when it could have been done much earlier?

They, of course, allege that Mindanao is short of power today. And with the scheduled brownouts causing massive economic displacement in the island, this has been turned into another reason for the private sector to be given new independent power producer (IPP) contracts that will double Mindanao’s generation cost.

The Agus VI uprating confirms our charge these past decades that authorities delayed rehabilitation deliberately to create an opportunity for electricity plunder. It confirms the conspiracy led by multilateral financial institutions in tandem with the Philippine oligarchy and its corrupt political class.

We have time and again seen through these conspirators’ modus operandi: Create power shortages; announce actions (though delayed) to justify government expenditure for “rush jobs;” then announce the privatization of a particular facility once its rehabilitation is completed and its systems are fully operational.

In this instance, the pressure for the privatization of the entire Agus-Pulangui hydroelectric complex has been on for years now. Only opposition from many crusading Mindanao power sector NGOs, civic leaders, and political leaders, such as Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, has stopped them so far. Sooner or later, though, the multinationals and multilaterals will descend upon Malacañang to get their way.

It is therefore important to keep refreshing the historical memory of our people about the pressure exerted by, say, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through its dangling of a $300 million standby loan on our politicians in 2001 to pass the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), a law that caused, among other things, the onerous and devastating privatization of power, the creation of the administrative and corrupt monster that is the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as well as its Satanic offspring, the Performance Based Regulation, which pushed the country’s power rates to become “the highest in Asia,” if not the world.

For the swift enactment of that law, which allegedly cost P500,000 per congressman plus millions in electricity projects, Gloria Arroyo back then was hailed by the foreign chambers of commerce, the Makati Business Club, and other oligarchs. It is not surprising then that these very same people are now showing all their love for PeNoy for providing the impeachment distraction as their power plunder continues.

As Agus and Pulangui supply the vast majority of hydro power in Mindanao, the same report last Monday also stated that the DoE is similarly pushing the dredging by government of the Lanao River that supplies water to Pulangui VI. Our question again is: Why only now?

Mindanaoans have demanded the dredging of these facilities years ago. But, as no action was taken, the power crisis started allowing the DoE, Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.), and the NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) to issue ”red alert” bulletins of power shortages to justify their call for more privatization and new emergency projects (e.g., power plants and transmission connections).

The caveat is, every time new projects are approved, new capex (capital expenditure) requirements are submitted, which are added to the power bills consumers pay for.

When will Congress and Malacañang do something about this — only after a genuine political revolution sweeps these corrupt ruling classes away?

On another related note, we have this item on the “wholesale savings” being stored with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for 4.25 percent interest and used as a tool for managing the country’s money and currency, called the Special Deposit Account (SDA): It has already grown to P1.721 trillion the past month. UP Economics professor Ben Diokno explains: “(The high level of funds in SDAs) indicated still weak demand for loans, suggesting lack of investment opportunities or banks still careful in extending loans… SDAs are short-term while PPP (Public-Private Partnership) financing requirements are extremely long-term…”

Really? But why do I see strong demand for loans from coconut and dairy, as well as other small manufacturing import-substitution sectors? Ah, but these are genuine industries that are not encouraged by the present economic planners.

Financial forensics expert Hiro Vaswani even contends that what this fund shows is that we are indeed a relatively rich nation. The only fly in the ointment is that lowering the rates and releasing it could create havoc due to the fact that we have no strong State that sets its own economic goals by directing the huge fund for our own productive developmental investments.

Reflecting further on Vaswani’s analysis, it dawned on me that the PPP program is but a concession to global capital, which, in fine, involves highly financially leveraged “rentier” projects (just like apartments and market stalls that are built and rented out to the public) with government guarantees that are not directly productive.

Although these may support some productivity in agriculture and industry, the fees and rates are just too high, making such an exploitative set-up work against productivity in the long run.

Taking note of the impact of such high toll and harbor fees, not to mention the high cost of energy projects being entered into, the PPP may very well stand for “Private Plunder Projects.”

(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “The evils of corporate mining behemoths;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)