“Enough is enough”, says militants on the power rates

As power firms, from power generators to distribution utilities join the Meralco in justifying the power rate hikes as they present their oral arguments before the Supreme Court justices today, militants belonging to Bukjluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralita ng Lungsod (KPML) marched and declared, “Enough is enough” on the power rate hikes.

The militants lamented that the Philippines is now the fifth country in the world and has most expensive electricity in Asia. They said that, “Even without the implementation of “historic” rate hike of Meralco, our $0.24/kwh electricity rates are way beyond our neighbors’”.

Electricity rates cost only $0.15/kwh in Thailand, $0.10/kwh in Malaysia, $0.05 in Indonesia and $0.09 sa China. “Proof that the government’s policy of privatization and deregulation is not universally sound and has become a deterrent to job-creating investments,” said BMP leader Gie Relova.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 has netted Meralco a net income from P2.6 billion in 2008 to P16 billion in 2012. From 2010 up to 2012, their profits grew 42% each year. Making it the most profitable business in the country

The militants brought with them a replica of an electric chair implying that for the longest time the masses has been suffering from high electricity costs and said that it’s about time that President Noynoy Aquino and the chief executive officers of the oligopoly in the industry to sit on it so that they may know what the people have been suffering since 2001.

“If public opinion and continued mass actions can make the Supreme Court turn in favor of the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund, then the BMP and KPML are most willing to incite our people to mass action against the vulture-like opportunism of the power firms and the government’s inaction”, Relova stressed.

The groups called for the repealing of the EPIRA, the institution of reforms and democratization of the Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure the role of the country’s poor majority, for the government to take the lead in promoting genuine competition and the nationalization of the power industry. ###

Contact Person:
Gie Relova
0915-2862555

Press Release

21 January 2014

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