MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Starting December, the Japanese government will cut household electricity bills by 20 percent to fight inflation. How envious could we get, we who are second only to Japan in the cost of electricity!
Green up to the gills? We could also seek a reaction from the new DOE secretary who is hopefully of a different tribe from his predecessor, he who spent more time cobbling together a disintegrating political party during the thick of a presidential campaign. Can Secretary Raphael Lotilla give us a Christmas gift like the Japanese government’s to their people?
Not to rain on our parade, but the news a few days ago is Meralco hiking our bills beginning this month. The irony is that when then President Ramos’ government cooked an alphabet soup of agencies to address the eight-to-12 hour blackouts — after President Cory abolished the Department of Energy — that solution turned out to be painfully unappetizing to consumers’ interests. ERC, PSALM, NGCP, WESM etc. were dunked into the power sector’s cooking pot, but those ingredients did nothing to improve the taste of our bills.
Look at PSALM – nothing to do with the holy Bible as the letters stand for Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. – and see how it made headlines:
PSALM logs ₱14 B losses as of Q3 (Feb. 4, 2019)
PSALM to tap $1.1 B loans to pay maturing debts (Feb. 5, 2019)
PSALM to collect ₱12.5 B from power consumers (April 1, 2019)
Gov’t borrowing eyed to wipe out PSALM universal charges (Aug. 29, 2019)
NPC sale proceeds not enough for PSALM liabilities (Nov. 7, 2022)
In addition:
Jan. 19, 2021, Senator Risa Hontiveros asked DOE and ERC “to review the surcharges passed on to electricity consumers.”
Sept. 4, 2022, ERC pleaded for “another chance on abolition threats by Congress.”
Sept. 5, 2022, Rep. Joey Salceda blamed the “excesses of oligopolists” to the tune of ₱1.2 T for high power rates.
Nov. 9, 2022, NGCP fined ₱5 M by DOE for failure to secure reserve supplies.
The loudest voice against “oligarchs and high power costs and profits” belongs to Butch Valdes, founder of Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino: “Japan has the right idea. We can cut by 50 percent at least.”