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In their desperation to amend the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (EPIRA)—and ultimately wrest Manila Electric
Co. (Meralco) from its current controlling owners, the Arroyo
administration and its allies seem to have gone berserk. The ruling
coalition has let loose the likes of Winston Garcia and its
senatorial cohorts, not unlike the way Julius Caesar had sicced
imperial Rome’s dogs of war on its enemies in the three parts of
Gaul.
So distasteful is the manner in
which this offensive is being carried out that this column finds
itself agreeing—uncharacteristically—with the likes of Sen.
Panfilo Lacson.
In a recent media interview, the
opposition senator said: “Ang parliamentary courtesy ay isang
time-honored tradition na dapat isaalang-alang ng lahat ng
mambabatas. Maaari namang ma-emphasize ang isang punto sa isang
madiin ngunit maayos at magalang na pamamaraan. Ang mga resource
person na iniimbitahan sa pagdinig ng Senado ay mga bisita na hindi
dapat nabu-bully o nababastos (Parliamentary courtesy is a
time-honored tradition that all lawmakers should observe. It is
possible to emphasize a point in a forceful but orderly and
respectful manner. Resource persons who are invited to a hearing in
the Senate are guests who should not be bullied or ridiculed).”
Amen to that—if only the
senator and his colleagues would remember the same whenever it is
they who are at the bat.
Lacson, of course, was alluding
to how pro-administration senators hectored leaders of the Joint
Foreign Chambers (JFC)—an influential albeit informal grouping of
the chambers of commerce of the United States, Australia-New
Zealand, Canada and Korea—as well as those of the Philippine
Association of Multinational Companies Regional
Headquarters—throughout a hearing of the Senate energy committee
last week.
JFC had made known its objections
to an administration plan to amend EPIRA. Its leaders believe that
the perceived “failure” of the law is not due to its provisions
but to the inability—or reluctance—of the government itself to
fully implement it.
That JFC had declared its
objections to the proposed EPIRA amendments in a letter its officers
sent directly to President Arroyo, and not to the Senate energy
committee, was the cue pro-administration senators took to badger
the foreign businessmen.
The protocol “gaffe”
notwithstanding, the position taken by JFC merely echoed the opinion
aired by no less than the head of the state company charged with
auctioning off National Power Corp. and other power entities of the
government. Jose Ibazeta, president of the Power Sector Assets and
Liabilities Management Corp., has gone on record to say that EPIRA
does not need to be amended given the progress PSALM is making in
privatizating Napocor’s power generation plants along with its
purchased power agreements.
The JFC letter to Malacañang
triggered the pro-administration senators’ outburst—but was the
procedural mistake, if a mistake it really was, enough reason for
the likes of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to hit the proverbial roof?
One of the foreign businessmen
who bore the brunt of the pro-administration senators’ ire was
Henry Schumacher, executive vice president of the European Chamber
of Commerce.
According to knowledgeable
sources in the business community, the harsh words that the
pro-administration senators threw in Schumacher’s way were
gratuitous, to say the least. Sources credit him with attracting
some 90 percent of the direct investments from Europe that have come
to the Philippines in the last 20 years.
Schumacher has done a lot
in convincing other foreign investors that the Philippines is worth
investing in, said one source. The foreign direct investments that
Schumacher has helped bring into the country have generated as much
as one million jobs, said another.
The pro-administration senators
also accused JFC of blocking the administration’s bid to bring
down the cost of electricity because its members include some
Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which have been raking in
profits from “take or pay” and other provisions in their
purchased power agreements with Napocor.
While some IPPs are indeed
part of JFC, the bulk of the grouping’s 2,000 or so members are
power consumers. In fact, these JFC members consume 25 percent of
the electricity that Meralco distributes in its Luzon franchise
area. Many other JFC companies are located all across the
archipelago—and are just as concerned about the high cost of power
in the country.
According to JFC, EPIRA—as an
example of reform legislation—is unmatched in Southeast Asia. It
added that the law, once fully implemented, will create a
competitive electricity market in the Philippines that should lead
to more efficiency and fair energy costs,
The problem is that some sinister
quarters seem hell-bent on preventing EPIRA’s full implementation.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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