DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/27/2013
Let's make this clear: The heirs of the "people power" of 1986 are not the people of this country. Only a few "power people," or the ruling class, benefited and continue to rake it in at the expense of the people. In the month of Edsa Uno, the privatized water services Manila Water and Maynilad petitioned for a P5.70 and jP10.70 increase in their rates. That's 15 percent and 20 percent more even as the two companies reported increases in year-on-year profits of 26 percent and 15 percent respectively.
In the electricity sector, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved a P0.19 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) increase to the universal charge to pay off P53 billion of "stranded contract costs" or the infamous take-or-pay PPA (purchased power agreement) costs of FVR that were turned over to private power companies (now a small part of the P1-trillion stranded debts and costs to be finagled from consumers over the next two decades or more).
Monday evening, I received an e-mail from one of our movement's newest converts. Behind the nom de guerre and Web site thegirlninja.com, our newfound people power amazona from "laissez faire" economics and financial philosophy to our "social market" perspective sent a report on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 privatization "sovereign guarantee" being provided again by the Aquino III government and his DoTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) secretary:
"The DoTC said the concession contract for the private sector's half of the P60-billion project would include a 'top-up' provision… the difference between pre-approved fares in the concession contract and the actual fares that the government will be able to implement when the time for adjustments comes… will be paid by the government to the operator… (DoTC Undersecretary) Lotilla… made the distinction between the LRT extension's top-up subsidies and the take-or-pay… in the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)…(such that in the) take-or-pay provision in the…MRT contract… commercial risks were borne by the government, removing the incentive for the private sector to improve operations."
Who is Lotilla kidding? Any reader will see that there is actually no difference in the "top-up" and "take-or-pay" guarantees. Thus, we are expecting an MRT fare hike after the elections, and are gearing up to stop it with (real) people power again.
One significant international event last week that the Filipino people and electricity consumers should take note of is the people power in Bulgaria against the 138-percent electricity price hike there. The protests culminated in a 100,000-strong demonstration that toppled the government. Just think about it: Bulgarian electricity cost was only at 0.0846 euro/kWh, approximately $0.118/kWh (at 1 euro to $1.49) or about P4.74/kWh, when Filipinos are paying as high as P13/kWh and going higher.
Aside from having the "highest power rate in Asia" and being top five in the world, the Filipino people are being mercilessly conned by the power people, both corporate and political, as National Power Corp. (Napocor) debts of $16.8 billion in 2001 — now under the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. — remain the same today; notwithstanding interest payments reaching $18 billion despite 90 percent of Napocor assets already having been privatized.
In all, "stranded debts," Napocor obligations, and "stranded contract costs" (aka the PPA) were left for the people to pay.
Psalm claims its debt has remained constant due to delays in implementation, but that it has raised $10.21 billion from Napocor asset sales. Of the amounts collected, Psalm reports only $5.48 billion, which already includes interest. Where's the rest?
Napocor's transmission grid, which was earning P16 billion or $400 million annually, was "sold" to Monte Oro (of Razon, FVR and Carlyle), then turned over to the NGCP or National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (with China State Grid, SM and Coyiuto groups) on installment for two-thirds of the payment schedule. These corporations where Napocor assets were transferred to, according to Psalm president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., still have a combined debt to government of more than $12 billion: $9.99 billion from the transfer of IPP (independent power producer) contracts to the private firms, $2.81 billion remaining payment for TransCo, as well as concession fees from NGCP; while the rest of the remaining debt are still being deciphered.
When I read that Fidel V. Ramos spoke again at the 27th Edsa counter-revolution celebration (which, by the way, ended at 11 a.m., probably the earliest wind-up in 27 years) about "pre-Edsa ills still (being) around," I could almost feel the puke well up.
Before 1986, these exorbitant power, water, and transportation rates were never a problem. I'm using "counter-revolution" to characterize the Edsa Uno event as it was without doubt the start of the reversal of Philippine society, from a developing "social welfare" system of democratizing wealth, services, and economics through state-led public enterprises, of deconstructing the oligarchy's monopolies, of decolonizing and de-Americanizing diplomacy by diversifying relations with other global blocs, among many other "revolutionary" reforms, thereby reducing the vestiges of the feudal and neocolonial era, to the laggard that it is today.
The Philippines — after 27 years of Edsa I legacies of deepening popular suffering and despair, growing poverty and hunger, exacerbating unemployment, critically proliferating social cancers of illegal drugs and gambling, and unabated corruption in elite-ruled governments, with regulatory agencies captured by the corporate-financial mafia — is ripe for revolution.
Question is, will Filipinos still be capable of regaining the optimism, love, and hope to overcome despair, apathy and surrender in fighting on — as their counterparts in Bulgaria have done — becoming victorious over the power people?
(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Sabah: Merdeka Redux?" with Al Marim Centi Tilla, lawyer Alan Paguia and Prof. Tony Pangilinan; also visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)
