DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / May 19, 2014 / Daily Tribune
Last week I touched base with Alain Pascua who is a “bird watcher” and conservationist nowadays, frequently disseminating social media posts on the bird species observed at the last surviving marsh down in Parañaque that some oligarchs want to bulldoze. Alain is also a leading member of Liling Briones’ NGO renowned for exposing the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or presidential pork, an issue seemingly buried now.
Back in 2001, Alain was a lead organizer of the anti-Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) protests, whose members, who wore T-shirts that said, “I signed against the PPA,” emblazoned in red, for which I’m organizing a reunion. The PPA is the Power Purchase Agreements signed by Cory Aquino, FVR, and GMA with IPPs (Independent Power Producers) since the 1990s.
Such PPAs catapulted the Philippines’ power rates into the “highest in Asia.” And this was even before the Epira became law in June 2001. Epira, known as the Omnibus Power Bill in the late 1990s, did not become law under the Joseph Estrada administration despite intense lobbying from Big Business and their hatchet man in Congress then, Butch Abad. Estrada, advised by Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile and Trade Secretary Jose Pardo, was skeptical of the proposed government guarantees to the power industry. Thus, Abad and company waited for Edsa II to fast break the Epira in less than five months by a lame duck Congress, before being swiftly signed into law by Gloria Arroyo in record time.
Amid numerous radio and TV ads in 2001 and 2002 promising an era of abundant, cheap household electricity, the public waited for the boon while the anti-PPA movement advanced to anti-Epira protests. These protests then culminated in a march from Bo. Kapitolyo’s Three Sisters restaurant, where Alain Pascua, Enrile, Rep. Boying Remulla, and hundreds more (myself included) signed the petition, to the Pasig Regional Trial Court, where we filed the historic case questioning the constitutionality of the Epira.
Despite our protests, the public continued to be lulled by the false promises of Epira. By late 2003, however, skepticism grew as power rates zoomed; and this disenchantment became so serious that someone had to cheat in the 2004 elections just to return to her usurped throne.
Two decades after the first PPAs were signed and 14 years since the Epira became law, the Philippines not only has the highest power rates in Asia, and sometimes the highest in the world — as in December 2013 and January 2014 when the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market manipulation added P4.17 per kilowatt-hour to the already highest in Asia P13/kWh, but it is also the only Association of Southeast Asian Nations country with major cities suffering from rolling brownouts and a major southern island (Mindanao) suffering up to 15-hour blackouts.
The power crisis in the Philippines from the supposed lack of electricity supply leads to tens of billions of pesos of losses to the domestic economy each year; yet for 10 whole years, the Philippine government, the elite “civil society,” and mainstream media allowed this crisis to go unresolved while devoting endless hours to comparatively trivial issues, such as the P10-billion “pork” anomaly.
And to take the monotony off such constant issues as “pork,” government and mainstream media belabor the China Sea disputes. Lately, a Chinese reclamation project in one of the Spratly islets drew vociferous protests from the Philippines that can do nothing to stop it. But the aggravating power crisis in the country, which is certainly within the powers of government to keep a lid on, gets only double-talk or short-lived attention and then endless procrastination from Malacañang.
One simple act that government could have done the past decade was to require private power companies earning billions in the Philippines to invest in new power plants here. But, clearly, with the way things are going, we shouldn’t be holding our breath.
Gathering the remaining members of the anti-PPA and anti-Epira movement to wear their “I signed against the PPA” T-shirts again should be an even prouder moment than before. It is a reminder that certain Filipinos were not sleeping when the thief crept in, and further evidence that perspicacious and visionary ordinary Filipinos saw through the veil of Philippine politics.
It will be a call to all citizens to exercise critical thinking whenever faced with foreign and local Big Business, their captured government agencies and politicians, as well as their controlled mainstream media and “civil society.”
(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., this week on “The true list: People’s Grievances;” search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
Last week I touched base with Alain Pascua who is a “bird watcher” and conservationist nowadays, frequently disseminating social media posts on the bird species observed at the last surviving marsh down in Parañaque that some oligarchs want to bulldoze. Alain is also a leading member of Liling Briones’ NGO renowned for exposing the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or presidential pork, an issue seemingly buried now.
Back in 2001, Alain was a lead organizer of the anti-Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) protests, whose members, who wore T-shirts that said, “I signed against the PPA,” emblazoned in red, for which I’m organizing a reunion. The PPA is the Power Purchase Agreements signed by Cory Aquino, FVR, and GMA with IPPs (Independent Power Producers) since the 1990s.
Such PPAs catapulted the Philippines’ power rates into the “highest in Asia.” And this was even before the Epira became law in June 2001. Epira, known as the Omnibus Power Bill in the late 1990s, did not become law under the Joseph Estrada administration despite intense lobbying from Big Business and their hatchet man in Congress then, Butch Abad. Estrada, advised by Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile and Trade Secretary Jose Pardo, was skeptical of the proposed government guarantees to the power industry. Thus, Abad and company waited for Edsa II to fast break the Epira in less than five months by a lame duck Congress, before being swiftly signed into law by Gloria Arroyo in record time.
Amid numerous radio and TV ads in 2001 and 2002 promising an era of abundant, cheap household electricity, the public waited for the boon while the anti-PPA movement advanced to anti-Epira protests. These protests then culminated in a march from Bo. Kapitolyo’s Three Sisters restaurant, where Alain Pascua, Enrile, Rep. Boying Remulla, and hundreds more (myself included) signed the petition, to the Pasig Regional Trial Court, where we filed the historic case questioning the constitutionality of the Epira.
Despite our protests, the public continued to be lulled by the false promises of Epira. By late 2003, however, skepticism grew as power rates zoomed; and this disenchantment became so serious that someone had to cheat in the 2004 elections just to return to her usurped throne.
Two decades after the first PPAs were signed and 14 years since the Epira became law, the Philippines not only has the highest power rates in Asia, and sometimes the highest in the world — as in December 2013 and January 2014 when the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market manipulation added P4.17 per kilowatt-hour to the already highest in Asia P13/kWh, but it is also the only Association of Southeast Asian Nations country with major cities suffering from rolling brownouts and a major southern island (Mindanao) suffering up to 15-hour blackouts.
The power crisis in the Philippines from the supposed lack of electricity supply leads to tens of billions of pesos of losses to the domestic economy each year; yet for 10 whole years, the Philippine government, the elite “civil society,” and mainstream media allowed this crisis to go unresolved while devoting endless hours to comparatively trivial issues, such as the P10-billion “pork” anomaly.
And to take the monotony off such constant issues as “pork,” government and mainstream media belabor the China Sea disputes. Lately, a Chinese reclamation project in one of the Spratly islets drew vociferous protests from the Philippines that can do nothing to stop it. But the aggravating power crisis in the country, which is certainly within the powers of government to keep a lid on, gets only double-talk or short-lived attention and then endless procrastination from Malacañang.
One simple act that government could have done the past decade was to require private power companies earning billions in the Philippines to invest in new power plants here. But, clearly, with the way things are going, we shouldn’t be holding our breath.
Gathering the remaining members of the anti-PPA and anti-Epira movement to wear their “I signed against the PPA” T-shirts again should be an even prouder moment than before. It is a reminder that certain Filipinos were not sleeping when the thief crept in, and further evidence that perspicacious and visionary ordinary Filipinos saw through the veil of Philippine politics.
It will be a call to all citizens to exercise critical thinking whenever faced with foreign and local Big Business, their captured government agencies and politicians, as well as their controlled mainstream media and “civil society.”
(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., this week on “The true list: People’s Grievances;” search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
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