CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14-20/2012
Last week we received several texts informing us of a discussion over a friendly radio program mentioning us and our crusade against power oligarchs and their DPAs (deep penetration agents) in government. The texts said one of the anchors opined that libel suits from those power oligarchs and their henchmen may just be waiting to be filed. One potential complainant mentioned was Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Jose Rene Almendras; another name was mentioned but not all the texters could remember. One mentioned the name of Manny Pangilinan, the Meralco big boss. I called Linggoy Alcuaz, fellow OpinYon columnist now on leave for medical check-ups, who is a regular listener of the radio program concerned. He explained that the "libel" issue was discussed theoretically. I said that I would welcome the suit anyway as it would help highlight the crusade we are waging against the power abuse and exploitation going on with impunity.
Over the past years we have been slapped with around a dozen libel and defamation cases. One case that dragged the publisher of the other newspaper I write for involved a P100-million claim for "damages" which dragged on for at least five years until the judge ordered a mediation process. That case involved a power oligarch over another public utility--the North Luzon Expressway. The filing fee alone for that suit cost the oligarch P1 million, a huge sum which would only be forfeited, but the oligarch believed it was worth it just to gag us for the duration of the case. For me and my publisher, it involved endless trips to the courts in hot, humid salas of different judges, with the oligarch never once attending, leaving it to his law (or low) counsels. To finally end the enervation, my publisher issued an apology for the oligarch to drop a P2-million demand for damages, which I followed in support of my publisher, but not without first bullshitting the oligarch's representative to the mediation.
The public utility privateers (or pirates) are aided in their plunder by such libel and defamation laws that make it very easy for the culprits to gag and/or burden journalists, critics, and consumer advocates (like Nasecore, or the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, whose leader Pete Ilagan was slapped with a libel case by the Lopezes). For the power oligarchs and plunderers, along with their henchmen, the cost of a few millions to tie up consumer protection advocates is a pittance for them to tie up their nemeses who are trying to stop them from looting hundreds of billions from the power consuming public. Still, this harassment will not stop us from continuing with our crusade to end the abuse and exploitation, to restore the power sector to national or consumer ownership and control, to halve the rates being charged, and to prosecute these oligarchs and their agents someday.
Meanwhile, a headline blared last week ("Meralco files plea for 2013 rate hike") that is sure to not go unopposed. Former Misamis Oriental Gov. Homobono Adaza and Mindanao anti-power privatization crusader Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power updated me on the latest attempt of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to pull a fast one on power consumers. This refers to the case filed by octogenarian accountant and consumer advocate Mang Naro Lualhati against the MAP (Maximum Allowable Price) application of Meralco before the ERC, a rate now the subject of newspaper reports announcing the projected 2013 Meralco rate increase. The notice of ERC hearing arrived anomalously late, at Adaza's residence on the Sunday afternoon before the Monday hearing. Adaza thus had to call Borja to fly from Bukidnon, where the latter had just alighted, back to Cagayan de Oro and to Manila overnight to catch the next day's event.
At the ERC hearing last Monday, only a "hearing officer" presided. Upon arriving at the hearing and entering his appearance, Adaza asked the "hearing officer" if he was "the" hearing officer. It turned out that the guy was only a clerk of court. Only after being informed that Adaza was at the hearing did the chairperson of the ERC, Zenaida Ducut, appear and preside--a basic requirement of the law which has never been met in all the past ERC hearings.
Since the instant proceeding was being called to formally accept the evidence of Meralco for its MAP approval, it was an evidentiary hearing which Adaza says is illegal since Borja also has a pending petition at the Court of Appeal questioning the continuation of the hearings until all prejudicial questions were resolved.
Adaza and Borja would have missed the ERC hearing if the deliberately late arrival of the notice for the hearing wasn't noted that Sunday. Adaza no longer made an issue of this as they had already averted the scheme. But he found the order for the hearing anomalous as well, as it was signed "for the ERC commissioners," when the law requires that such orders are signed by all the commissioners. As this regular anomaly was no longer tolerated by Adaza, the entire proceeding for Meralco's presentation of evidence was delayed for another five days. As such, five million customers got a reprieve thanks to Adaza, Borja, and Lualhati (who wasn't able to attend due to physical infirmities).
The ERC's attempts to frustrate consumer advocates' exposés of Meralco's predatory rate hike petitions have had a long history. Since 2003, both Meralco and the ERC have had their way in running rings around even the Puno Supreme Court and the Commission on Audit. When BS Aquino III stepped into Malacañang, the power oligarchs' noose tightened even more around the high court with the appointment of his justices, starting with Justice Lourdes Sereno, who had always decided in favor of Meralco in the most crucial issue of rate increases and nitpicked on consumer protectionists.
Latest reports from Mindanao say brownouts there are getting longer, with the cause supposedly the rehabilitation work now being done at the Agus-Pulangi left undone for two years of the BS Aquino III government despite desperate pleas from Mindanaoans in 2010.
As the negligence clearly was deliberate, the delay in the plants' rehabilitation directly led to the power shortfalls that created the power crisis, which became another opportunity for oligarchs like the Aboitizes to price gouge the people.
In the wake of Mindanao's electricity woes, government was compelled to call for a summit and schedule a hearing of the Joint Congressional Power Commission for April. Amazingly, Sen. Serge Osmeña postponed the meet for another month claiming no quorum, which his House counterpart Rep. Dina Abad ensured by getting out of town! All these as government's losses have already reached P15 billion, with the local Mindanao economy losing up to P60 billion.
(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 May 12, "Malampaya plunder" with Rep. Neri Colmenares; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, May 14, 2012
Souls on the Shoals
VIEW FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14-20/2012
Souls on the Shoals
The issues of vitality
Are still: the pricing of electricity
The issues of the China Sea
And parochially, fears of the Tsinoy community;
I have heard fears expressed
As one Tsinoy to me confessed
Of a list the military allegedly is making
Of Tsinoys who are opining
That Filipinos are overreacting
To the points China is explaining:
That China's claim to the China Sea
Has basis in long recorded history
There is no point in acrimony
In China and the Philippines' diplomacy
As peaceful dialogue and mutuality
Will win the day for each party
Indeed the Philippines must simply proceed
To discuss, negotiate on how to proceed
With joint projects of oil and gas explorations
Like Vietnam does with India, Russia, and other nations
Seeking new arms for "credible defense"
From the US departments of State and Defense
In the eyes of neighbor China is seen as an offense
A provocation by the US across the geopolitical fence
My own take of all the acrimony is this:
It's not the people-to-people relations that's amiss
It's the US exerting geopolitical pressure
That its monopoly over Philippine territory it may ensure
It is known among those in the know
Like those on Embassy Row
How some Philippine officials have been tepid
In receiving China's friendship bid
A standby loan offer of $1.6 billion
For instance, has been kept in oblivion
Gray steel hulls greet Hainan fishing expeditions
In age-old "commons" sea--now disputed dominions
Ironically, some Philippine government officers
Gladly expend from the national coffers
Funds for their inexplicable injudicious orders
For obsolete US Hamilton cutters
'Tis the US and its tandem Britain
Monopoly over RP they would retain
Like Malampaya gas hogged by Shell and Chevron
And mere ten percent share for the Philippine population
I told my Tsinoy friend that if there is
Being made such a Tsinoy blacklist
It would really be by the US imperialist
For the "Project for a New American Century" to persist
'Tis the US that conquered these islands
And buried a million Filipinos across its seas and lands
Carted off the Balangiga Bells now at a US Air Base,
And continue looting to the present days
China and Tsinoys must realize
That the US and Britain operate in perfect disguise
Behind "democracy" and "independence" of neo-colonies
And promote from behind the antipathies
Sovereignty for an ancient nation
Is sacred today as in Shi Huang Ti's coronation
UNCLOS exists less than a generation
But can cause so much consternation
The 1300s Ming dynasty "nine line" map shows
Embrace of Scarborough or the Huangyan shoals
The Philippines in '65 planted flag and a lighthouse did light
Yet uncaring Filipino leaders left flag and light fade out of sight
By either side from dusk to dawn
Maps and histories will be shown
Yet from these debates no benefits can ever be drawn:
Only by mutual exploitation shall the fruits be known
Genuine Filipino patriots must come to the fore
Unbridled by the "colonial mentality" lore
And speak the truth of imperialist stories from yore
And imperialism today again returning to fore
Filipinos, like Vietnamese, Malaysians, and more
Must move ahead--join and explore
With India, Russia, China, and Iran too
To tap the common Sea's boon to the people due
60/40 Filipinos must declare
The Filipino people should have the lion's share
Unlike US/Britain's ten percent spare
In Malampaya for the Filipino's fare
China if it is to be Big Brother
Must share more with Little Brother,
Rest assured China will reap more bother
If Little Brother conspires with the Other
Let Tsinoys and Pinoys take from history
Lessons that should always be in living memory
Colonial and imperial wars have come and gone
Always no good to people's lives they have done
Meanwhile the Filipino nation
Must deal with its continuous "electrocution"
No point in jawing or warring of territorial demarcations
While the "highest power cost in Asia" bring ruination.
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14-20/2012
Souls on the Shoals
The issues of vitality
Are still: the pricing of electricity
The issues of the China Sea
And parochially, fears of the Tsinoy community;
I have heard fears expressed
As one Tsinoy to me confessed
Of a list the military allegedly is making
Of Tsinoys who are opining
That Filipinos are overreacting
To the points China is explaining:
That China's claim to the China Sea
Has basis in long recorded history
There is no point in acrimony
In China and the Philippines' diplomacy
As peaceful dialogue and mutuality
Will win the day for each party
Indeed the Philippines must simply proceed
To discuss, negotiate on how to proceed
With joint projects of oil and gas explorations
Like Vietnam does with India, Russia, and other nations
Seeking new arms for "credible defense"
From the US departments of State and Defense
In the eyes of neighbor China is seen as an offense
A provocation by the US across the geopolitical fence
My own take of all the acrimony is this:
It's not the people-to-people relations that's amiss
It's the US exerting geopolitical pressure
That its monopoly over Philippine territory it may ensure
It is known among those in the know
Like those on Embassy Row
How some Philippine officials have been tepid
In receiving China's friendship bid
A standby loan offer of $1.6 billion
For instance, has been kept in oblivion
Gray steel hulls greet Hainan fishing expeditions
In age-old "commons" sea--now disputed dominions
Ironically, some Philippine government officers
Gladly expend from the national coffers
Funds for their inexplicable injudicious orders
For obsolete US Hamilton cutters
'Tis the US and its tandem Britain
Monopoly over RP they would retain
Like Malampaya gas hogged by Shell and Chevron
And mere ten percent share for the Philippine population
I told my Tsinoy friend that if there is
Being made such a Tsinoy blacklist
It would really be by the US imperialist
For the "Project for a New American Century" to persist
'Tis the US that conquered these islands
And buried a million Filipinos across its seas and lands
Carted off the Balangiga Bells now at a US Air Base,
And continue looting to the present days
China and Tsinoys must realize
That the US and Britain operate in perfect disguise
Behind "democracy" and "independence" of neo-colonies
And promote from behind the antipathies
Sovereignty for an ancient nation
Is sacred today as in Shi Huang Ti's coronation
UNCLOS exists less than a generation
But can cause so much consternation
The 1300s Ming dynasty "nine line" map shows
Embrace of Scarborough or the Huangyan shoals
The Philippines in '65 planted flag and a lighthouse did light
Yet uncaring Filipino leaders left flag and light fade out of sight
By either side from dusk to dawn
Maps and histories will be shown
Yet from these debates no benefits can ever be drawn:
Only by mutual exploitation shall the fruits be known
Genuine Filipino patriots must come to the fore
Unbridled by the "colonial mentality" lore
And speak the truth of imperialist stories from yore
And imperialism today again returning to fore
Filipinos, like Vietnamese, Malaysians, and more
Must move ahead--join and explore
With India, Russia, China, and Iran too
To tap the common Sea's boon to the people due
60/40 Filipinos must declare
The Filipino people should have the lion's share
Unlike US/Britain's ten percent spare
In Malampaya for the Filipino's fare
China if it is to be Big Brother
Must share more with Little Brother,
Rest assured China will reap more bother
If Little Brother conspires with the Other
Let Tsinoys and Pinoys take from history
Lessons that should always be in living memory
Colonial and imperial wars have come and gone
Always no good to people's lives they have done
Meanwhile the Filipino nation
Must deal with its continuous "electrocution"
No point in jawing or warring of territorial demarcations
While the "highest power cost in Asia" bring ruination.
P7.11M solves Mindanao crisis
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14/2012
Last May 9, state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) completed its fast-tracked rehabilitation of the Pulangi IV hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon, allowing it to generate power to its installed capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) from half of that before. That the rehabilitation was started only mid-April this year at the height of the Mindanao power crisis shows government's hurried response to the uproar from Mindanaoans who have suffered the crippling effects of the long blackouts--outages that were deemed deliberate.
As a result, Mindanao's economy suffered billions in losses, estimated by some to reach P60 billion, with government's Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. claiming a loss of up to P15 billion.
To wit, the estimated power shortfall was anywhere between 100 to 150 MW. The Pulangi rehab, meanwhile, costing only P7.11 million, has already restored at least 100 MW of installed electric capacity to Mindanao. The question is, why didn't the Department of Energy (DoE) order this rehab earlier when this new administration took over in 2010? Was it negligence or plain sabotage?
If Pulangi IV alone had been maintained properly at such a minimal cost early on, with the rest of the Agus-Pulangi system also rehabilitated two years prior, there would not have been any Mindanao power crisis to speak of.
Instead, what BS Aquino III, his DoE officials, as well as politicians such as Sen. Serge Osmeña have repeatedly claimed for the past two years was that a power crisis in Mindanao can only be solved by installing new coal-fired and other power plants.
Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the RE (Renewable Energy) law in turn has repeatedly claimed that solar and wind power for Mindanao is the answer, hiding the fact that his RE law charges P20 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for solar and wind, compared to hydro's P2/kWh.
In all, these officials are acting more as lobbyists, with Osmeña calling for the privatization of Agus-Pulangi and other hydroelectric resources on behalf of the oligarchs (such as the Lopezes, Aboitizes, Alcantaras, and Ayalas); with DoE officials siding with the coal and mining lobby; and with Angara rooting for his RE program in favor of foreign energy companies that would have to be in partnership with the usual suspects, i.e. the power oligarchs, who are already in RE projects.
What is made clear from these historical facts is that national policy on this matter has been ruled solely by lobby interests working through the entire political structure. Not a single one of these officials have acted with responsibility and concern for the genuine interest of the people of Mindanao and the nation as a whole; thus, leading to the situation today that has produced the "highest power cost in Asia" devastating our industries and quality of life.
Last Saturday evening, on our Destiny Cable GNN program, Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power and lawyer Homobono Adaza reported on how the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is again trying to pull a fast one on the public.
As we wrote in this space last week, they recounted how notices of a crucial ERC hearing on the case of the Maximum Allowable Price (MAP) petition of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) arrived suspiciously late--on a Sunday afternoon at legal counsel Adaza's residence, less than a day before the hearing, and, for petitioner Borja, on the Friday before the Monday hearing.
Despite the many underhanded moves, we're glad that the Meralco petition was postponed anew, saving the power firm's 6 million consumers from an early approval of a very onerous power rate base that is 100 percent over what the company should be charging for distribution. The present rate, by the way, is based on what Borja says are several instances of Meralco equipment overpricing by as much as 900 percent!
Mang Naro Lualhati, octogenarian consumer activist, who works in cooperation with the team of Borja, Adaza, Butch Junia, Alan Paguia, Ferdie Pasion, and many others, laid the basis for the case that Borja and Adaza are now locking horns with Meralco over at the Court of Appeals (CA); thus, constraining the ERC from trying to resolve Meralco's petition in its sala at this time.
Furthermore, Lualhati has filed a motion for reconsideration on the ERC's dismissal of his opposition to Meralco's MAP of around P1.60/kWh, which, according to the accountant-oppositor--aided by Borja's facts, figures, and documents--should only be P0.90/kWh.
If Lualhati, Borja et al. will prevail in this epic struggle, they can win for Meralco customers as much as 50 percent of the distribution charges they pay, not including several more if other issues, such as the Performance Based Regulation scheme and its 17 percent rate of return vs the old Return-on-Rate Base's 12 percent, are eventually dealt with and overturned.
More importantly, another fact was highlighted in our program that should make everyone stop and take the predatory power victimization of millions of Filipinos very seriously. Says Borja, "To this day, Iligan Light and Power is charging only P5.50/kWh retail on a customer base of 60,000 electricity connections while Meralco is charging P11 to P12/kWh on a customer base of 6 million electricity connections."
Whatever happened to the principle of "economies-of-scale," where the bigger the market and operation of an enterprise, the lower its prices for products and services should be? Well, given that the scale of the losses from the Mindanao power crisis, amounting to billions of pesos, was solved by a mere P7.11-million rehab project, we should know that these power pirates are always up to no good.
(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., this May 12 on "Malampaya plunder" with Rep. Neri Colmenares; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/14/2012
Last May 9, state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) completed its fast-tracked rehabilitation of the Pulangi IV hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon, allowing it to generate power to its installed capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) from half of that before. That the rehabilitation was started only mid-April this year at the height of the Mindanao power crisis shows government's hurried response to the uproar from Mindanaoans who have suffered the crippling effects of the long blackouts--outages that were deemed deliberate.
As a result, Mindanao's economy suffered billions in losses, estimated by some to reach P60 billion, with government's Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. claiming a loss of up to P15 billion.
To wit, the estimated power shortfall was anywhere between 100 to 150 MW. The Pulangi rehab, meanwhile, costing only P7.11 million, has already restored at least 100 MW of installed electric capacity to Mindanao. The question is, why didn't the Department of Energy (DoE) order this rehab earlier when this new administration took over in 2010? Was it negligence or plain sabotage?
If Pulangi IV alone had been maintained properly at such a minimal cost early on, with the rest of the Agus-Pulangi system also rehabilitated two years prior, there would not have been any Mindanao power crisis to speak of.
Instead, what BS Aquino III, his DoE officials, as well as politicians such as Sen. Serge Osmeña have repeatedly claimed for the past two years was that a power crisis in Mindanao can only be solved by installing new coal-fired and other power plants.
Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the RE (Renewable Energy) law in turn has repeatedly claimed that solar and wind power for Mindanao is the answer, hiding the fact that his RE law charges P20 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for solar and wind, compared to hydro's P2/kWh.
In all, these officials are acting more as lobbyists, with Osmeña calling for the privatization of Agus-Pulangi and other hydroelectric resources on behalf of the oligarchs (such as the Lopezes, Aboitizes, Alcantaras, and Ayalas); with DoE officials siding with the coal and mining lobby; and with Angara rooting for his RE program in favor of foreign energy companies that would have to be in partnership with the usual suspects, i.e. the power oligarchs, who are already in RE projects.
What is made clear from these historical facts is that national policy on this matter has been ruled solely by lobby interests working through the entire political structure. Not a single one of these officials have acted with responsibility and concern for the genuine interest of the people of Mindanao and the nation as a whole; thus, leading to the situation today that has produced the "highest power cost in Asia" devastating our industries and quality of life.
Last Saturday evening, on our Destiny Cable GNN program, Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power and lawyer Homobono Adaza reported on how the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is again trying to pull a fast one on the public.
As we wrote in this space last week, they recounted how notices of a crucial ERC hearing on the case of the Maximum Allowable Price (MAP) petition of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) arrived suspiciously late--on a Sunday afternoon at legal counsel Adaza's residence, less than a day before the hearing, and, for petitioner Borja, on the Friday before the Monday hearing.
Despite the many underhanded moves, we're glad that the Meralco petition was postponed anew, saving the power firm's 6 million consumers from an early approval of a very onerous power rate base that is 100 percent over what the company should be charging for distribution. The present rate, by the way, is based on what Borja says are several instances of Meralco equipment overpricing by as much as 900 percent!
Mang Naro Lualhati, octogenarian consumer activist, who works in cooperation with the team of Borja, Adaza, Butch Junia, Alan Paguia, Ferdie Pasion, and many others, laid the basis for the case that Borja and Adaza are now locking horns with Meralco over at the Court of Appeals (CA); thus, constraining the ERC from trying to resolve Meralco's petition in its sala at this time.
Furthermore, Lualhati has filed a motion for reconsideration on the ERC's dismissal of his opposition to Meralco's MAP of around P1.60/kWh, which, according to the accountant-oppositor--aided by Borja's facts, figures, and documents--should only be P0.90/kWh.
If Lualhati, Borja et al. will prevail in this epic struggle, they can win for Meralco customers as much as 50 percent of the distribution charges they pay, not including several more if other issues, such as the Performance Based Regulation scheme and its 17 percent rate of return vs the old Return-on-Rate Base's 12 percent, are eventually dealt with and overturned.
More importantly, another fact was highlighted in our program that should make everyone stop and take the predatory power victimization of millions of Filipinos very seriously. Says Borja, "To this day, Iligan Light and Power is charging only P5.50/kWh retail on a customer base of 60,000 electricity connections while Meralco is charging P11 to P12/kWh on a customer base of 6 million electricity connections."
Whatever happened to the principle of "economies-of-scale," where the bigger the market and operation of an enterprise, the lower its prices for products and services should be? Well, given that the scale of the losses from the Mindanao power crisis, amounting to billions of pesos, was solved by a mere P7.11-million rehab project, we should know that these power pirates are always up to no good.
(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., this May 12 on "Malampaya plunder" with Rep. Neri Colmenares; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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