DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/18/2011
While the world’s attention has been diverted to the Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, the many tsunamis on Filipinos continue daily, wave upon wave. This month, the final 2010 figure on the nation’s debt servicing for interest and principal payments hit a staggering P690 billion. That’s practically half of the national budget; up 10 percent from 2009. This gobsmacking payment is being made despite Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco’s continuing boasts that the country has around $63 billion in foreign exchange reserves simply lying idle in various financial instruments.
Such tsunami of hubris and arrogance can only come from a government that thinks very lowly of the Filipino public, assuming that the people are unable to see through its farce of staying in the good graces of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while pummeling the people more with burgeoning taxes.
In the wake of what the country is witnessing in the Japan disasters, there has been quite a lot of speculation about how the Philippines could cope if anything similar happened here. Government is, of course, yakking about preparedness for such events. Seriously though, given the financial state of the Philippine government, if anything close to what hit Sendai, Japan were to happen today, the country would just be a little better off than Haiti in the aftermath of its own killer quake.
In particular, if a mega-quake were to hit the coast around the capital, Manila Bay will be drained for a few moments and an equally gigantic tsunami will soon engulf the city up to the limits of Makati and Malabon-Navotas, up to Obando, Bulacan. Even Cavite will most probably see the same devastation as Minami Sanriku, with the death toll reaching the equivalent of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
If we consider the state of preparedness and availability of equipment and leadership that we witnessed during the massive “Ondoy” flood, then the Philippines will be in real trouble if a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami were to hit us today. During Ondoy, government wasn’t even able to gather enough rubber boats; and we certainly know of the sorry state of our Air Force’s helicopter fleet (which used to number hundreds in Marcos’ time but is today down to two dozens).
A country that is drained of P690 billion (or $16 billion) just for debt servicing will simply never have the resources to prepare itself nor the equipment and supplies necessary for survival and reconstruction from monumental disasters such as what we have seen more frequently around the globe. Just think: The estimated cost of Japan’s devastation at $100 billion is already about the total debt of the Philippines at P4.4 trillion.
Added to this murderous debt servicing is the annual tsunami of the siphoning off of people’s resources to the Big Corporatocracy, which, on record (as Gloria Arroyo economic adviser Joey Salceda pointed out before Big Business in 2010), has swallowed down P1 trillion every year, like huge earthquake fissures chomping down huge trucks and structures. Truly, the Filipino people have long been hemorrhaging even before any epochal physical or tectonic disaster has ever hit the country.
The daily scene in Metro Manila’s streets, for one, is no different from the disaster-ravaged lives in the Sendai Shinruku area today: Children in ragtag clothes shivering in the cold nights (even if there’s no winter here); thousands of homeless in the alleys and side roads; and makeshift houses of cardboard and salvaged tin sheets dotting the landscape of blighted areas.
But that’s not all. Yet another great Philippine tsunami is also at work here — the tsunami of idiocy.
The debate over nuclear power in the Philippines has resurfaced in the aftermath of the feared Fukushima nuclear meltdown. It is right for Mark Cojuangco to back down from his proposal, as he did so already. But the anti-nuke proponents are now making hay in pushing their agenda — the promotion of solar and wind energy.
The problem here is that these baby energy methods (solar and wind) are just as idiotic as the previous insistence of the pro-nukes to borrow $1 billion for nuclear energy given the fact that the Philippines is sitting atop one of the richest hoards of geothermal energy in the world.
This information is backed by no other than the US Geological Surveys agency. Moreover, it is also a well-known fact among the world’s geothermal authorities that the Philippines is a pioneer in this field and has one of the best crops of geothermal engineers and technicians ever. So why is geothermal energy being deliberately side-stepped?
While we have to live with this disaster area called the Philippines because we were born here and grew up here, there comes a time when we need to ask: How much longer can we hang on? This, especially as the tsunami of idiocy has reached all the way to the top, with Aquino III writing off P6 billion in tax debts of an oligarchic company’s power plant in Pagbilao, Quezon, at a time when the Philippines continues to reel from the financial tsunami of the national debt and the continuous exploitation by the corporatocracy.
Maybe a real, physical, tectonic and oceanic tsunami would be a blessing — to wipe off such idiocy from the face of this country, in order to finally allow the authentic Filipino spirit to rise and reign over this land.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Philippine energy alternatives;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our select radio and GNN shows)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Learning moments
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/14/2011
Global media enhance the learning moments from last Friday’s dramatic magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We have learned again from this latest earthquake and tsunami. First, that we have not seen the peak of the earthquake intensities our earth and Mother Nature are capable of: The 1995 Kobe 7.2-magnitude earthquake demonstrated the physical devastation to industrial infrastructure, the 2004 Indian Ocean undersea quake visually highlighted the trans-oceanic devastation in lives (240,000 killed) a tsunami can wreak on coastlines of continents thousands of miles apart, the Sichuan magnitude 8 earthquake in China in 2008 pictured for the world the impact of such seismic disasters in a mountain setting as landslides blocking rivers threaten inundations of already hard hit quake refugees. The Christchurch, New Zealand quake shows that no place on earth, even the idyllic, can be complacent. The current Sendai quake highlights the risk of mega-quakes to nuclear power plants.
The world, especially the Philippine proponents of the new nuclear power project, undoubtedly watched with great anxiety the events at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. Commissioned 40 years ago and the oldest of the over 50 nuclear plants in Japan, the Light Water reactor Fukushima 1 power plant’s regular cooling system was disabled by the quake; its emergency power knocked out by the tsunami and back up battery-power cooling system didn’t suffice to cool down the reactor. While the Japanese military moved in emergency power the nuclear reactor continued overheating until explosions destroyed its concrete outer shell and broadcast all over the world. I followed the Fukushima events closely from the Japanese cable news NHK while following the analyses on RT (Russia Today, more comprehensive on Fukushima than CNN, BBC or Al Jazeera). Early evening the NHK put on screen the Japanese spokesman announcing that a total meltdown and major radiation leak had been averted.
For the past decade I have advocated the development of geothermal energy for the Philippines and crusaded against the proposal for a $1-billion new nuclear power plant. We are one of the richest in the world in geothermal energy, it makes no sense to indebt ourselves by another billion dollars and be dependent on uranium fuel monopolized by industrial countries. Our geothermal energy has proven to be one of the cheapest and most reliable for our energy needs. However, neither have I subscribed to the fear mongering of anti-nuke activists who caused our Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to be mothballed, which led to massive power shortages and billions wasted. The Fukushima power plant crisis should compel advocates of the new billion dollar nuclear power plant to pause; we hope they all join instead the campaign to push geothermal energy development to the maximum. The lesson of Fukushima for Filipinos: geothermal is the only alternative.
The Sendai, Japan earthquake and tsunami shifted the world’s focus away from Libyan crisis. Gadhafi started to turn the tide after the surprise of the armed insurrection that started in the eastern city of Benghazi. Today, it is clear that the turmoil in Libya is not the “people power” as it was in Tunisia or Egypt. The turmoil was a very well planned and deliberate attempt at a coup d’etat with armed insurrection. Western allegations of Gaddafi’s air force firing on civilian protestors were debunked by Russian satellite monitoring which showed no such flights. RT (Russia Today) also debunks alleged bombings as its resource persons said that no proof has been shown by the West that these have occurred, only CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera footage of jets flying overhead. Billowing plumes shown by Western media may really be artillery explosions. Rebel forces in expensive SUVs highlighted the “rich rebels,” as Argee Guevara noted; giving him the impression that the issue in Libya is not poverty, unlike in Tunisia and Egypt; the issue in Libyan is control of oil.
Two important developments in the Libyan situation are: 1) Hillary Clinton’s admission that Benghazi, stronghold of the rebels is the origin of many Afghan and Iraq al-Qaedas; 2) the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Arab League’s call for instituting a “No fly zone” over Libyan. Hillary report strengthened Gadhafi’s claims. The GCC and AL states are practically ruled by Western installed feudalistic clans where the more authentic “people power” are even today being suppressed violently. Amr Mousa, secretary general of the AL, is one of the two Western candidates to replace Mubarak. Gadhafi has criticized these Arab groupings repeatedly for their failure to oppose Western invasion of Iraq, inaction on the Palestine-Israel issues and subservience to the West. The only real independent, sovereign leader in this question of the “No fly zone” is Muammar Gadhafi, and if he survives this conspiracy against the socialism of Libya Gadhafi may just become the Arab people’s new Nasser.
In the Philippines, the people missed one learning moment when the mainstream media downplayed the P6-billion illegal tax write off Aquino III gave to Mirant and “Team Energy,” the past and present owners of the Pagbilao power plants, by Executive Order 27 of the President which does not have any legal cover for such as act. Taxation is the exclusive province of Congress. PeNoy cannot afford P 5.4-billion subsidy for millions of MRT-LRT commuters but he can afford it for one foreign power company?
(Tune to Sulo ng Pilipino, M-W-F, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 : “ARMM Hocus PCOS?”; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/14/2011
Global media enhance the learning moments from last Friday’s dramatic magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We have learned again from this latest earthquake and tsunami. First, that we have not seen the peak of the earthquake intensities our earth and Mother Nature are capable of: The 1995 Kobe 7.2-magnitude earthquake demonstrated the physical devastation to industrial infrastructure, the 2004 Indian Ocean undersea quake visually highlighted the trans-oceanic devastation in lives (240,000 killed) a tsunami can wreak on coastlines of continents thousands of miles apart, the Sichuan magnitude 8 earthquake in China in 2008 pictured for the world the impact of such seismic disasters in a mountain setting as landslides blocking rivers threaten inundations of already hard hit quake refugees. The Christchurch, New Zealand quake shows that no place on earth, even the idyllic, can be complacent. The current Sendai quake highlights the risk of mega-quakes to nuclear power plants.
The world, especially the Philippine proponents of the new nuclear power project, undoubtedly watched with great anxiety the events at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. Commissioned 40 years ago and the oldest of the over 50 nuclear plants in Japan, the Light Water reactor Fukushima 1 power plant’s regular cooling system was disabled by the quake; its emergency power knocked out by the tsunami and back up battery-power cooling system didn’t suffice to cool down the reactor. While the Japanese military moved in emergency power the nuclear reactor continued overheating until explosions destroyed its concrete outer shell and broadcast all over the world. I followed the Fukushima events closely from the Japanese cable news NHK while following the analyses on RT (Russia Today, more comprehensive on Fukushima than CNN, BBC or Al Jazeera). Early evening the NHK put on screen the Japanese spokesman announcing that a total meltdown and major radiation leak had been averted.
For the past decade I have advocated the development of geothermal energy for the Philippines and crusaded against the proposal for a $1-billion new nuclear power plant. We are one of the richest in the world in geothermal energy, it makes no sense to indebt ourselves by another billion dollars and be dependent on uranium fuel monopolized by industrial countries. Our geothermal energy has proven to be one of the cheapest and most reliable for our energy needs. However, neither have I subscribed to the fear mongering of anti-nuke activists who caused our Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to be mothballed, which led to massive power shortages and billions wasted. The Fukushima power plant crisis should compel advocates of the new billion dollar nuclear power plant to pause; we hope they all join instead the campaign to push geothermal energy development to the maximum. The lesson of Fukushima for Filipinos: geothermal is the only alternative.
The Sendai, Japan earthquake and tsunami shifted the world’s focus away from Libyan crisis. Gadhafi started to turn the tide after the surprise of the armed insurrection that started in the eastern city of Benghazi. Today, it is clear that the turmoil in Libya is not the “people power” as it was in Tunisia or Egypt. The turmoil was a very well planned and deliberate attempt at a coup d’etat with armed insurrection. Western allegations of Gaddafi’s air force firing on civilian protestors were debunked by Russian satellite monitoring which showed no such flights. RT (Russia Today) also debunks alleged bombings as its resource persons said that no proof has been shown by the West that these have occurred, only CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera footage of jets flying overhead. Billowing plumes shown by Western media may really be artillery explosions. Rebel forces in expensive SUVs highlighted the “rich rebels,” as Argee Guevara noted; giving him the impression that the issue in Libya is not poverty, unlike in Tunisia and Egypt; the issue in Libyan is control of oil.
Two important developments in the Libyan situation are: 1) Hillary Clinton’s admission that Benghazi, stronghold of the rebels is the origin of many Afghan and Iraq al-Qaedas; 2) the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Arab League’s call for instituting a “No fly zone” over Libyan. Hillary report strengthened Gadhafi’s claims. The GCC and AL states are practically ruled by Western installed feudalistic clans where the more authentic “people power” are even today being suppressed violently. Amr Mousa, secretary general of the AL, is one of the two Western candidates to replace Mubarak. Gadhafi has criticized these Arab groupings repeatedly for their failure to oppose Western invasion of Iraq, inaction on the Palestine-Israel issues and subservience to the West. The only real independent, sovereign leader in this question of the “No fly zone” is Muammar Gadhafi, and if he survives this conspiracy against the socialism of Libya Gadhafi may just become the Arab people’s new Nasser.
In the Philippines, the people missed one learning moment when the mainstream media downplayed the P6-billion illegal tax write off Aquino III gave to Mirant and “Team Energy,” the past and present owners of the Pagbilao power plants, by Executive Order 27 of the President which does not have any legal cover for such as act. Taxation is the exclusive province of Congress. PeNoy cannot afford P 5.4-billion subsidy for millions of MRT-LRT commuters but he can afford it for one foreign power company?
(Tune to Sulo ng Pilipino, M-W-F, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 : “ARMM Hocus PCOS?”; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
Op-Ed neo-colonialism
CRITIC'S CRITIC
Mentong Laurel
3/14-20/2011
Philippine mainstream newspapers that are rooted in the neo-colonial economy and dependent on their Western counterparts for ideology, inspiration, and content naturally reflect a significant amount of colonial mentality in their op-ed pages. One such proof is the proliferation in local op-ed sections of syndicated or featured columnists from Western newspapers, with a preponderance of conservative and neo-conservative views that tend to distort local readers’ appreciation of the greater political-economic milieu in line with their bias.
While there are some notable exceptions, such as progressive writer Ken Fuller, whose original articles for the domestic audience are published by The Daily Tribune, other foreign columnists--mostly of the neo-liberal stripe--often seem to engage in misinformation to waylay Filipinos from the concept of economic independence.
One of them is Peter Wallace, an Australian-born, self-proclaimed economic expert who dishes out advice through his Wallace Business Forum and writes “Like It Is” in the Manila Standard Today. Often acting as a spokesman for the foreign chambers of commerce, his aggressive critiques on RP’s vital issues are what would constitute as barbaric rudeness in other Asian cultures. Another one is John Mangun, who writes “Outside the Box” for the Business Mirror. His articles expound on economic globalization and liberalization, as well as stock market speculation, as the keys to Philippine economic salvation (even when these are just designed to favor foreign investors if you ask me).
Last Feb. 11, Peter Wallace wrote, “We have to wake up,” arguing that contrary to the common notion in the country that the Philippines is on top in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, it is actually falling far behind India , China , Malaysia , Egypt , Indonesia , Mexico , Thailand , and Vietnam--and correctly so, far behind at No. 9.
Wallace lamented: “That’s a long way down… Indonesia and Egypt were behind the Philippines in 2005, Vietnam trailed us in 2009, now they’re heading up.” Then he said that BPO operations cost less in Egypt and other countries than in the Philippines , which is true again. But right before he completed the logic of the “costs,” he inexplicably turned to criticize the Philippines on the issue of the use of English, stressing that for Filipinos to catch up, they must be educated in that language, adding that he has “badgered on this for years.”
However, when one probes deeper into why Wallace is adamant at it, his logic suddenly falls flat because NONE of the seven (out of eight) countries which by his own statistics are doing better than the Philippines in the BPO sector (China, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam) use English as their medium of instruction. India , of course, uses English; but it is clearly the exception.
Ironically, Wallace tried to divert attention from the real culprit for success or failure, i.e. cost. This, in spite of the fact that one of the major reasons regularly cited by Philippine BPOs for their difficulties has been the power costs for air-conditioning, equipment maintenance, etc.
Philippine electricity rates have become the highest in Asia since 2001 when the Asian Development Bank dangled a $300-million loan in exchange for the power privatization law known as EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act). These jumped even higher when Manny Pangilinan of the Salim group and other foreign investors took over Meralco in 2007, and with the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission), instituted the PBR (Performance Based Rate-setting) mechanism that gave Meralco gargantuan 60- to 80-percent profit increases annually.
But as Wallace has always promoted power privatization and deregulation, such a fact has, of course, been unsurprisingly obviated. So in order to skirt the cost issue further, he detours to education again, saying “I’m delighted the President agreed to 12 years to learn… but has yet to give English the priority it must have.” Frankly, though, the K+12 or the twelve year-basic education policy is only based on a misrepresentation of international education standards. As such, it is rejected by many Filipino public education experts and economists as an enormous burden.
Meanwhile, back to the issue of power rates, John Mangun in the Feb. 23rd edition of Business Mirror wrote, “Philippine electric rates highest? False,” apparently attempting to counter “one of the major daily newspapers” which he alleged ran the headline “PHL has world’s highest power rates.”
Mangun should have identified the “major daily” so that anyone could have easily verified the assertions made. But no; it seems he doesn’t want to identify the newspaper at all (unsure perhaps of the veracity of his counter-claims?).
What this writer can claim without any ambiguity is that many newspapers and columnists, including yours truly, have asserted that the Philippines indeed has “the highest power rates in Asia .” We have provided statistics, including compilations of entries that have individual cross references for official sources, to show this. We have indeed also written--and it is verifiable--that the Philippines has “among the highest power rates IN THE WORLD.”
Mangun’s account of his electricity bill shows how obtuse his computations are: “Last month it was P4,166.55 for a consumption of 396 kWh. So that is P10.52 per kWh. At the current peso-dollar exchange rate of P43.685, I am actually paying 24 US cents, not 18 cents. Before government taxes, the rate is 21 US cents. I am now confused.”
If Mangun were to compute for those consuming 400 kWh and up, he would find their distribution cost at P2.394/kWh (plus or minus the exchange rate and other factors) to his P1.723/kWh (or for those consuming 299 to 399 kWh).
Mangun continued: “I looked at rates from Hong Kong Electric… 18.6 US cents before taxes and other charges, the same as the combined Napocor and Meralco basic charges. That’s interesting.”
But this is what we downloaded from CLP Electric of Hong Kong: “CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP) today announced that the Company is increasing its tariff by an average of 2.8 percent… With effect from 1 January 2011… which results in an average net tariff of 94.1 cents per unit of electricity…” or divided by 7.75 to get the US dollar equivalent, the Hong Kong rate is only at 12 US cents!
Mangun admits Vietnam's 6.5 US cents/kWh is four times lower than Philippine rates. His own data for Singapore’s 18.89 US cents/kWh is also much lower than his computation of his own electric bill in Manila at P10.52/kWh or 24 US cents. By now, the differences must be glaring to him.
Wikipedia put Philippine power rates last year at 28 US cents/kWh, and indeed it was when exchange rates were far more adverse against the peso. The Philippine Congress, during floor deliberations between Rep. Evardone and the ERC, put the Philippine rates at around 18 to 19 US cents/kWh--but that’s by the trick of averaging all the power rates of hundreds of electricity cooperatives and distributors all over the country, despite the fact that almost 70 percent of the country is served by Meralco, which charges the higher power rates of them all.
Mangun finally concludes, but again with a mischievous twist: “Are power rates high in the Philippines in comparison to many countries? Yes. Why? Because we generate most of the power from imported fuel.”
Good grief... Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong don’t even have significant local crude, coal, or geothermal resources; but their power rates are still lower than the Philippines! What Mangun does not want to say is that privatization and the profiteering of foreign “investors” with Filipino dummies in the power sector are the very conditions that have kept on hiking power costs in this country. And we haven’t even yet factored in the “proportionality” of our power rates to the level of RP’s floundering economy. That’s sure to be another Waterloo for Mangun’s arguments--not to mention those of his like-minded ilk in Philippine mainstream media.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on the “ARMM Hocus PCOS?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
Mentong Laurel
3/14-20/2011
Philippine mainstream newspapers that are rooted in the neo-colonial economy and dependent on their Western counterparts for ideology, inspiration, and content naturally reflect a significant amount of colonial mentality in their op-ed pages. One such proof is the proliferation in local op-ed sections of syndicated or featured columnists from Western newspapers, with a preponderance of conservative and neo-conservative views that tend to distort local readers’ appreciation of the greater political-economic milieu in line with their bias.
While there are some notable exceptions, such as progressive writer Ken Fuller, whose original articles for the domestic audience are published by The Daily Tribune, other foreign columnists--mostly of the neo-liberal stripe--often seem to engage in misinformation to waylay Filipinos from the concept of economic independence.
One of them is Peter Wallace, an Australian-born, self-proclaimed economic expert who dishes out advice through his Wallace Business Forum and writes “Like It Is” in the Manila Standard Today. Often acting as a spokesman for the foreign chambers of commerce, his aggressive critiques on RP’s vital issues are what would constitute as barbaric rudeness in other Asian cultures. Another one is John Mangun, who writes “Outside the Box” for the Business Mirror. His articles expound on economic globalization and liberalization, as well as stock market speculation, as the keys to Philippine economic salvation (even when these are just designed to favor foreign investors if you ask me).
Last Feb. 11, Peter Wallace wrote, “We have to wake up,” arguing that contrary to the common notion in the country that the Philippines is on top in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, it is actually falling far behind India , China , Malaysia , Egypt , Indonesia , Mexico , Thailand , and Vietnam--and correctly so, far behind at No. 9.
Wallace lamented: “That’s a long way down… Indonesia and Egypt were behind the Philippines in 2005, Vietnam trailed us in 2009, now they’re heading up.” Then he said that BPO operations cost less in Egypt and other countries than in the Philippines , which is true again. But right before he completed the logic of the “costs,” he inexplicably turned to criticize the Philippines on the issue of the use of English, stressing that for Filipinos to catch up, they must be educated in that language, adding that he has “badgered on this for years.”
However, when one probes deeper into why Wallace is adamant at it, his logic suddenly falls flat because NONE of the seven (out of eight) countries which by his own statistics are doing better than the Philippines in the BPO sector (China, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam) use English as their medium of instruction. India , of course, uses English; but it is clearly the exception.
Ironically, Wallace tried to divert attention from the real culprit for success or failure, i.e. cost. This, in spite of the fact that one of the major reasons regularly cited by Philippine BPOs for their difficulties has been the power costs for air-conditioning, equipment maintenance, etc.
Philippine electricity rates have become the highest in Asia since 2001 when the Asian Development Bank dangled a $300-million loan in exchange for the power privatization law known as EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act). These jumped even higher when Manny Pangilinan of the Salim group and other foreign investors took over Meralco in 2007, and with the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission), instituted the PBR (Performance Based Rate-setting) mechanism that gave Meralco gargantuan 60- to 80-percent profit increases annually.
But as Wallace has always promoted power privatization and deregulation, such a fact has, of course, been unsurprisingly obviated. So in order to skirt the cost issue further, he detours to education again, saying “I’m delighted the President agreed to 12 years to learn… but has yet to give English the priority it must have.” Frankly, though, the K+12 or the twelve year-basic education policy is only based on a misrepresentation of international education standards. As such, it is rejected by many Filipino public education experts and economists as an enormous burden.
Meanwhile, back to the issue of power rates, John Mangun in the Feb. 23rd edition of Business Mirror wrote, “Philippine electric rates highest? False,” apparently attempting to counter “one of the major daily newspapers” which he alleged ran the headline “PHL has world’s highest power rates.”
Mangun should have identified the “major daily” so that anyone could have easily verified the assertions made. But no; it seems he doesn’t want to identify the newspaper at all (unsure perhaps of the veracity of his counter-claims?).
What this writer can claim without any ambiguity is that many newspapers and columnists, including yours truly, have asserted that the Philippines indeed has “the highest power rates in Asia .” We have provided statistics, including compilations of entries that have individual cross references for official sources, to show this. We have indeed also written--and it is verifiable--that the Philippines has “among the highest power rates IN THE WORLD.”
Mangun’s account of his electricity bill shows how obtuse his computations are: “Last month it was P4,166.55 for a consumption of 396 kWh. So that is P10.52 per kWh. At the current peso-dollar exchange rate of P43.685, I am actually paying 24 US cents, not 18 cents. Before government taxes, the rate is 21 US cents. I am now confused.”
If Mangun were to compute for those consuming 400 kWh and up, he would find their distribution cost at P2.394/kWh (plus or minus the exchange rate and other factors) to his P1.723/kWh (or for those consuming 299 to 399 kWh).
Mangun continued: “I looked at rates from Hong Kong Electric… 18.6 US cents before taxes and other charges, the same as the combined Napocor and Meralco basic charges. That’s interesting.”
But this is what we downloaded from CLP Electric of Hong Kong: “CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP) today announced that the Company is increasing its tariff by an average of 2.8 percent… With effect from 1 January 2011… which results in an average net tariff of 94.1 cents per unit of electricity…” or divided by 7.75 to get the US dollar equivalent, the Hong Kong rate is only at 12 US cents!
Mangun admits Vietnam's 6.5 US cents/kWh is four times lower than Philippine rates. His own data for Singapore’s 18.89 US cents/kWh is also much lower than his computation of his own electric bill in Manila at P10.52/kWh or 24 US cents. By now, the differences must be glaring to him.
Wikipedia put Philippine power rates last year at 28 US cents/kWh, and indeed it was when exchange rates were far more adverse against the peso. The Philippine Congress, during floor deliberations between Rep. Evardone and the ERC, put the Philippine rates at around 18 to 19 US cents/kWh--but that’s by the trick of averaging all the power rates of hundreds of electricity cooperatives and distributors all over the country, despite the fact that almost 70 percent of the country is served by Meralco, which charges the higher power rates of them all.
Mangun finally concludes, but again with a mischievous twist: “Are power rates high in the Philippines in comparison to many countries? Yes. Why? Because we generate most of the power from imported fuel.”
Good grief... Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong don’t even have significant local crude, coal, or geothermal resources; but their power rates are still lower than the Philippines! What Mangun does not want to say is that privatization and the profiteering of foreign “investors” with Filipino dummies in the power sector are the very conditions that have kept on hiking power costs in this country. And we haven’t even yet factored in the “proportionality” of our power rates to the level of RP’s floundering economy. That’s sure to be another Waterloo for Mangun’s arguments--not to mention those of his like-minded ilk in Philippine mainstream media.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on the “ARMM Hocus PCOS?;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
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