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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
A RANKING Catholic Church
official on Saturday slammed the government’s plan of taking over
operational control of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the
country’s largest utility.
Archbishop Oscar Cruz of
Lingayen-Dagupan cautioned that the government is just taking such
move to monopolize the power industry.
“This is very threatening
because if that happens, Malacañang would have Transco, National
Power Corp. [Napocor] and Meralco under its wings. And whoever
controls power, controls industry and commerce,” Archbishop Cruz
said in a statement.
“I’m definitely against it
because the government is not known to be a good ‘businessman’.
The eagerness of the Government Service Insurance System [GSIS] to
gain control of the electric company is just a ‘worried’ move by
the Malacañang,” the prelate added.
Cruz, a known critic of President
Gloria Arroyo, also emphasized the need for a government crackdown
on all power distribution companies in the country so as to prove
its sincerity to lower power costs.
“The government should not take
in business corporations that make money, otherwise, it will lose
money,” Cruz said.
The Lopez family was able to
regain control of Meralco after a grueling duel between the Winston
Garcia-led GSIS during its annual stockholders meeting last Tuesday.
The Lopezes still had the majority by securing five of eleven seats,
while the GSIS captured four. Independent directors got the
remaining two slots.
GSIS president Garcia, however,
claims that the GSIS could have secured five seats had the votes of
the Lopezes’ “questionable” proxies been excluded.
He then urged the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) to nullify the results as it claims that
the Lopezes insisted to hold the meeting despite a cease-and-desist
order invoked by the state regulator.
Earlier, House committee on
energy Vice Chairman and Rep. Luis Villafuerte also denounced
Meralco and First Gas Corporation for blaming Napocor for the mess,
citing the fact that First Gas Chief Operating Officer Richard
Tantoco already admitted that Meralco paid his company P13 billion
for electricity which they failed to deliver to Meralco but which
Meralco passed on to consumers.
The wrangling between the
government and the Lopezes came after President Arroyo called on the
business community to join the fight against Meralco’s alleged
overcharging of consumers.
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