A consumer advocacy group urged the government to come up with strategic solutions to address increasing demand for reliable power supply in the country while ensuring its affordability especially for ordinary consumers.
Former congressman Christopher “Kit” Belmonte, co-convenor of CitizenWatch Philippines, said such strategic measures are what lawmakers should focus into since reliable and affordable power supply is what the Filipino people have been asking for.
“We appeal to our legislators not to waste time, energy, and the limited resources of government on unproductive and politically motivated exercises that will only distract instead of contributing real solutions to our power and energy problems,” Belmonte said.
He was reacting to the privilege speech of Sta. Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez who criticized the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
Belmonte said the Laguna solon may have been fed with wrong information as he stressed that the issues raised by Fernandez were found to be inaccurate.
“CitizenWatch Philippines has consistently been calling for strategic solutions that will effectively address the increasing demand for reliable and affordable power which is critical to sustaining economic growth,” said Belmonte.
“We believe that the focus should be on accelerating the building of the country’s power generation capacity that balances a sustainable and affordable energy mix,” he added.
In a separate statement, Bantay Konsyumer, Kalsada, Kuryente Convenor (BK3), lawyer Karry Sison called on legislators to focus on real solutions to meet the increasing demand of consumers for stable and affordable power supply.
Sison said that it is more productive to solve the bad service of some electric cooperatives who have already filed complaints and petitions to replace their distribution utility.
“Our power supply distributors are not perfect – whether it's Meralco, or electric cooperatives. We need to understand that not all of our electrical problems are due to them as the dynamics of the sector are highly complex and needs highly technical analysis of accurate data,” said Sison.
“We at BK3 have long called on the government to investigate the policies of public utilities and especially the direct effect on consumers as the primary consideration. We hope our policy makers will focus on addressing the thinning supply of electricity which is the real cause of brownouts damaging our local and national economy,” Sison added.