Meralco-Napocor settlement: NOT OK

CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/24-26/2011



Last Oct. 18, several mainstream newspapers headlined “CA okays P14B Napocor-Meralco compromise,” which could have led many to conclude that things are all honky dory for the parties concerned. No, the compromise agreement is definitely NOT OK. The Court of Appeals (CA) just said that the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) can deal with the issue, which the Solicitor General still disputes.

If you are unable to connect the relevance of this news to your daily life, please read along. I’m sure the vast majority of citizens still do not know the particulars of this case even if it is of huge importance to them, given that it might potentially cost them an additional arm aside from the other limbs already taken by Meralco.

The dispute stems from power distributor Meralco’s violation of its contract in 1994 to purchase P42 billion worth of electrical power from the National Power Corp. (Napocor). At a great loss to government, Meralco reneged on its obligations when it set up its own IPPs (independent power producers) and bought from them (or itself) instead of Napocor.

In the ensuing suits at the Pasig RTC, and after much haggling, Meralco and Napocor finally settled on a P14-billion penalty for the former, which penalty--take note--they agreed to PASS ON TO CONSUMERS!

This extremely lopsided compromise agreement represented a loss of at least P28 billion to government and, worse, the penalization of millions of consumers who were never a party to the contract or negotiations.

The Solicitor General’s office, in pursuing its mandate to protect government’s interest, faulted Napocor for not having the authority to enter into such an agreement and for failing to consult with other concerned agencies adversely affected by the deal. The SolGen then went to the CA to question the jurisdiction of the Pasig RTC, after which a TRO (temporary restraining order) was issued.

Consumer protection groups also eagerly awaited the outcome of this case since the Pasig RTC is believed by many to have a track record of being under the influence (or payroll) of Meralco. It was in this Pasig RTC where one of our original petitions questioning the constitutionality of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) was made to drag for several years before being trashed.

While we could have gone to the Supreme Court after that, the repression of the Arroyo regime, plus the 2004 elections, overtook the issue. Had FPJ (who was against the EPIRA) won, that disastrous law could have been reversed.

Going back, the recent CA decision said, “Petitioners’ fear that the settlement agreement would be a burden to the consuming public who were not able to participate in the mediation proceedings is an unconfirmed assumption.” Oh, really?

So why did the dissenting opinion from Justice Japar Dimaampao say that the CA majority “deprived the public of their ‘right to probe into the burdensome ‘pass-through’ (provision),” arguing that since the “people stand defenseless against the inauspicious consequences ensuing from the settlement agreement… Why should we allow Meralco to pass on the buck to us? Why should we be made to pay the horrendous obligation of Meralco?”

Thank you, Justice Dimaampao. The SolGen now has the option to raise the issue to the Supreme Court which we believe we can win. But at the same time, we in the anti-power plunder group believe that it is still best to go beyond the jurisdictional question and thresh out the demerits of the settlement agreement itself.

The SolGen’s position is both correct and imperative: To prevent government agencies such as Napocor from going on their own--abusing their authority--to negotiate, which is an open avenue for graft and corruption. Besides, Meralco’s owners already have a long track record of exercising their political and media clout to influence corrupt regulatory agencies. The result is that we always lose and get screwed as taxpayers and consumers.

The consumer protection movement, even consumers themselves, should work even harder to oppose this settlement agreement outside the courts, by including it as one of the issues in a planned “vigil” (a la Occupy Wall Street).

The fight over this compromise deal represents one of the best opportunities to put both Meralco and Napocor on the spot while we batter them with other cases to be brought to the courts by our anti-power plunder group.

But then, there is another matter that power consumers of this country must take note of, which mainstream media is practically blind to. The “provisional reset” of Meralco’s PBR (Performance Based Rape… este, Rate) and its MAP (Maximum Average Price) of P1.60/kWh are being torpedoed despite formal opposition from Mang Naro Lualhati and the anti-power plunder group that it should be not more than P0.90/kWh.

That was the subject of the last hearing at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) where consumer representatives were given a runaround--as the hearing schedule was switched from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, in order to confuse the public, which has already relied on the ERC website or its public bulletin board just outside the hearing room. It’s good that we stayed on so as not to be declared in default. We were able to force the ERC to postpone the hearing on the PBR reset request of Meralco. But then, as if railroading their plans, the ERC still granted Meralco a provisional increase without any public hearing. The people must resoundingly reject this and penalize culpable ERC officers. This outrage cannot be tolerated any minute longer.

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Russian and Philippine Ties in the Multi-Polar World” with Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

Occupy Quezon City Hall!

YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/24-26/2011



Occupy Quezon City Hall! That is definitely a much better thing to do than to try to occupy Malacanang Palace or to try to convince people to occupy Tektite Towers.

Malacanang is from where P-Noy does not govern well enough. Tektite Towers is where the Philippine Stock Exchange is located.

There are a couple of other places that should have been occupied a long time ago. These are the Energy Regulatory Board, the Manila Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) ,and the Local Water Utilities Authority (LWUA), as well as the oil companies.

Additional Taxes
The reason for occupying QC Hall is Proposed Ordinance 2010-91 entitled “An Act Further Amending the QC City Revenue Code, As Amended, To Impose an additional 0.5% on the Assessed Value of all lands in Quezon City Exceeding P100,000.00.

PO 2010-91 allocates the additional collected tax to the City Government’s Socialized Housing Program as provided for under Section 43 of Republic Act No. 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (UDHA).

Following that, meaning after QC residents and taxpayers occupy and symbolically squat on the QC Hall Complex, occupy your own City Hall or Municipality’s Town Hall.

You be the judge. You know best.

If your own local seat of government is not worth occupying, just come to Metro Manila and help us.

Corporate Greed
In suggesting the above course of action, I am coming from my take on, and understanding of several things that developed and happened in history:

1. Last July 13’s single blog post and September 17’s “Occupy Wall Street Movement” march and rally at Zuccotti Park and its expansion to hundreds of cities in the USA and thousands of cities worldwide:
2. The birth or expansion of the Anti-Vietnam War Movement 46 years ago;
3. The First Quarter Storm of Student and Youth Activism 41 years ago;
4. EDSA I 25 years ago;
5. EDSA II 10 years ago;
6. EDSA III 10 years ago,
7. And the failure of the Anti-GMA Movement to oust her over a period of nine and a half years.

OWS in 190 Cities
On Saturday, Sept. 17, about 50 demonstrators gathered at Zucotti Park near Wall Street in New York City to denounce Corporate Greed.

They were jeered by the Establishment and roughed up by the police.

They stuck at it and maintained a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week vigil under the concept of “Occupy Wall Street.”

Within a month, on Saturday, Oct. 15, Occupy Wall Street was being replicated in 190 US cities and almost a thousand cities worldwide.

Here, in the Philippines, the usual suspects, meaning, the full time activists, advocates, demonstrators and rallyists, have done their token, “Occupy Wall Street” in various venues.

However, it has not yet captured the imagination of the Filipinos, in general.

From a Blog Post
In order for us to understand the immediate beginnings of the phenomenon, may I quote from an article in www.NPR.org dated Oct. 20, 2011, entitled “ Occupy Wall Street: From A Blog Post To A Movement” by Bill Chapell:

“After more than 30 days, the Occupy Wall Street movement has evolved from a protest in New York City into a growing international movement.

And it all started in July, as a single blog post inspired by the Arab Spring.

“Here's a look at significant developments in the Occupy Wall Street timeline, as it gathered momentum and spread to other US cities.

“Timeline: Tracking Occupy Wall Street's Growth

“July 13: Adbusters publishes a blog post calling for "a shift in revolutionary tactics" and urging tens of thousands of people to converge on lower Manhattan.

The plan: "set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices."

“The protest will have no leadership, the post notes. And its sole demand will not be determined until the gathered mass of protesters agree on what it should be.

“But the post's authors can't resist offering a candidate: "[We] demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for Democracy Not Corporatocracy, we're doomed without it."

“The post, signed "Culture Jammers HQ," also introduces the #occupywallstreet hashtag."

Chronology: Ongoing
“July 26: The Occupy Wall Street website is launched; the group also uses Twitter and Facebook to promote the Sept. 17 demonstration. Adbusters calls for similar protests to be held in central financial districts in Germany, Japan, Britain, and around the world.

“Aug. 23: The activist hacking group Anonymous releases a video supporting Occupy Wall Street and uses its Twitter feed to promote the demonstration.

“Sept. 17: The rally and march take place, and the protesters set up a temporary city in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. Soon it will have its own newspaper, food supply chain and WiFi. Reports of arrests and clashes with police emerge almost daily. Many of the incidents are filmed and posted on YouTube.

“Sept. 24: New York police officers arrest more than 80 protesters as they march to Union Square. The conflict brings fresh charges that the police were overly zealous in using force and pepper spray.

“Oct. 1: More than 700 demonstrators are arrested during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Police officials say they targeted only those protesters who clogged traffic lanes instead of taking the pedestrian walkway.

“Oct. 5: Many of America's largest unions announce their support for Occupy Wall Street, as the movement holds a large march in Manhattan. In a poll, the group's approval rating is measured at 33 percent — 19 points higher than that of Congress.

“Oct. 6: Demonstrations spread to more cities, including Washington, D.C., where protesters pledge to remain in place for weeks to come.

“Oct. 11: Reports spread about a group seeking to counter Occupy Wall Street by claiming to be 'the 53% of Americans subsidizing these people so they can go hang out on Wall Street to complain'. Inspired by conservative blogger Erick Erickson's blog post on Oct. 5, the group's slogan is a play on "the 99 Percent."

“Oct. 12: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits the protesters' camp in Zuccotti Park, telling them they have two days to vacate the park, so that its owners, Brookfield Office Properties, can clean it. His office cites 'unsanitary conditions.' Protesters begin cleaning the park themselves.

“Oct. 14: Brookfield Properties announces that it will not force Occupy Wall Street to leave Zuccotti Park. On his radio show, Bloomberg says the company bowed to pressure from elected officials.

“Oct. 15: Loosely coordinated demonstrations inspired by Occupy Wall Street take place in 951 cities in some 82 countries, according to organizers.

“Oct. 17: Adbusters proposes an Oct. 29 '#RobinHood Global March' — and a candidate for the group's unifying demand: 'On October 29, on the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, let's the people of the world rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.'

“Oct. 19: The New York City Police Department says that one its officers — who famously pepper-sprayed women during a Sept. 24 protest — will be disciplined and is likely to lose vacation days.”

In our continuation, we will explain how in the sixties and seventies, we imitated the wave of activism and protests that swept the USA and Europe.

We will also theorize whether we will follow in the footsteps of the “Occupy Wall Street” Movement.

The 'Lion of Africa'

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/24/2011



The man was never in any official position in the Libyan government, yet the West and its propaganda machine often describe him as a “dictator” and “tyrant.” Moammar Kadhafi, “Brotherly Leader of the Revolution (Al Fateh),” began as a young officer with the “Free Officers Corps” and built a movement around an ideology of “direct democracy” (as expressed in The Green Book and his “Third International Theory”) that became the building block of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

In the 43 years of Kadhafi’s stewardship, the Libyan people achieved the highest per capita income of $12,000, along with the highest standard of living in all of Africa. Their government was able to build the $25-billion Great Manmade Water Project that tapped the Sahara aquifers to supply 6.6 million cubic meters of water daily to the Libyan people, and eventually allow the greening of the Sahara desert. Libya was also able to keep intact 144 tons of gold reserves and $50 billion in assets deposited in Western banks.

Kadhafi was the visionary who had prepared for years to introduce the gold dinar, using his country’s 144 tons of gold reserves to become the African currency — beginning with its use in the trading of oil in Africa, to eventually become the basis upon which an African Central Bank is to be organized. These would have pushed through if not for the Nato attacks on his regime.

Under Kadhafi, Libya had no debt; now, the Nato-led NTC (National Transition or Traitors’ Council) has borrowed heavily from Western countries against the very Libyan assets deposited with them during Kadhafi’s era, with payment to be made from future oil contracts. These countries, in turn, are readying contracts on behalf of their companies for the reconstruction of Libya; the cost of which will be drawn from the Libyan assets they seized (a situation that obviously the new puppet Libyan government can do nothing about). Also, these Western powers are now said to be looting Libya’s gold reserves — this, as French, Italian and US companies are carving up the Libyan oil industry for themselves.

Indeed, Kadhafi had shared Libya’s oil revenues with many in Africa in the pursuit of his pan-African vision, along with other revolutionary movements in the world. In fact, one of the first visits made by the iconic Nelson Mandela outside of his native South Africa, right after his release from 27 years in prison, was to Libya’s Colonel Kadhafi to thank him for his support of the African National Congress’ long and arduous struggle.

It must be remembered that the African Union (AU) continued to call for negotiations and elections to resolve the Libyan crisis while protesting the many gross violations by the US and Nato of the parameters of the UN “No fly zone.” I even recall South African President Jacob Zuma condemning the attacks before hinting that armed support was somehow discussed among African member-nations to come to the aid of a northern neighbor battered by an eight-month assault. The AU must now be hurting terribly from all that has happened.

Still, there is a constant debate as to what the US-Nato motive in the attack on Kadhafi really is. Divergent views say that it is either about oil, the gold dinar, or the African Central Bank; but I see it as all of the above and more. I subscribe to several seasoned observers whose views run along the lines of Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar’s. In his article, “The US power grab in Africa,” he writes, “The big picture remains the Pentagon’s Africom (US military command) spreading its militarized tentacles against the lure of Chinese soft power in Africa, which goes something like this: in exchange for oil and minerals, we build anything you want, and we don’t try to sell you ‘democracy for dummies.’”

Moreover, such views hew even closer to Centre for Research on Globalization contributor John Pilger’s “Obama, The Son of Africa, Claims a Continent’s Crown Jewels” treatise, which says, “Africa is China’s success story. Where the Americans bring drones and destabilization, the Chinese bring roads, bridges and dams… Libya under Moammar Kadhafi was one of China’s most important sources of fuel,” further revealing that, according to French newspaper Libération, “the west’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ was explained… in a proposal to the French government by the ‘rebel’ National Transitional Council… (whereby) France was offered 35 percent of Libya’s gross national oil production ‘in exchange’ (the term used) for ‘total and permanent’… American plans for Africa (which) are part of a global design in which 60,000 special forces, including death squads, already (operating) in 75 countries (are to be used)... As Dick Cheney pointed out in his 1990s ‘defense strategy’ plan, America simply wishes to rule the world. That this is now the gift of Barack Obama, the ‘Son of Africa’… what matters is not so much the color of your skin as the power you serve and the millions you betray.”

Kadhafi, who was the visionary for a new, independent, and progressive Africa, stood in the way of the Western powers’ re-conquest of the continent — and the world — through control of expanding territories and minerals, including oil, in a campaign of constriction against the only real, strategic threat to the reestablishment of their uni-polar world. China, with its population and economic/technological potential, is set to become the world’s No. 1 soon — a prospect that they must surely dread.

Finally, let us close with this message from Gerald A. Perreira of the International Revolutionaries Movement, part of an international battalion defending the Al Fateh revolution: “The Lion of Africa is dead… he has left millions of cubs in the bushes and in the desert. They can kill the man but they can never kill his profound ideas. His legacy is only made stronger by his martyrdom.”

And that legacy lives on.

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)