“If Senator Escudero is pro-poor as he claims, he’d be moving for the repeal of Meralco’s franchise,’ says Winston Garcia.”
by Ducky Paredes
If Meralco and the Lopezes thought that GSIS’ selling its Meralco shares has put a stop to the headache that GSIS President Winston Garcia has been giving the Lopez family, they are definitely wrong.
Yesterday, Winston let loose another of his artillery rounds. This time the target was Senator Chiz Escudero who Winston says will soon be revealed as nothing more than a “stooge” of the Lopezes if Chiz will continue to “see and hear no evil” on Meralco’s exorbitant power rates and failure to refund what it had overcharged its 4.4 million customers.
Garcia cites Escudero’s lingering silence on the hot issues being raised against Lopez-controlled Meralco: “He’s got his mouth zippered on Meralco’s abuses under the management of the Lopezes, while being very vocal against those whom the Lopezes may consider as their enemies, like the GSIS.”
According to Garcia, Escudero “has not dared touch with a 10-foot pole the shenanigans of Meralco,” while riding high publicity-wise on almost every issue, including those involving former agriculture under-secretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante and the so-called “euro generals.”
As a matter of fact, the whole Senate (with the exception of Loren Legarda) has ignored the Meralco issue and most senators seem to have never even heard of the exorbitant Meralco power rates, which are P2 to P3 more expensive per kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to other distribution utilities. If Chiz and his fellow senators are what they pretend to be – the champions of the Filipino people – shouldn’t they be at least showing some concern about the Meralco issue?
One would think that the Senators who like nothing better than another investigation “in aid of legislation) would have gotten on Meralco’s case long ago; yet, strangely, it has not.
Garcia points out: “The abuses of Meralco hit the stomach as they victimize a lot of people and are committed in blatant disregard of moral and legal norms.
“Senator Escudero is nowhere to be found in the prolonged profile and drawn out discussion on Meralco’s high rates, questionable deals with Lopez companies, unconscionable pass-on charges, and the many times it had been caught overcharging consumers.”
Garcia asks why Escudero does not at least support a petition of consumer groups before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) bidding to stop Meralco’s deferment of P3.9 billion in consumer refund.
The refund in question arose from Meralco’s over-recovery from 2003 to 2006 under the currency exchange rate adjustment mechanism or CERA.
Why can’t Escudero press Meralco to complete its refund of the P30 billion of its income tax which it surreptitiously passed on to consumers from 1994 to 2002, and which the Supreme Court ordered returned in a 2003 decision?
“Meralco has been violating with impunity both the terms of its franchise and the EPIRA, which tasked it to provide least-cost electricity to its captive market. If Senator Escudero is pro-poor as he claims, he’d be moving for the repeal of Meralco’s franchise,” says Winston Garcia.
Winston says that he hopes that the entry as a major stockholder of Meralco of food and beverage giant San Miguel Corporation (SMC) will bring about the much-needed change, resulting to the lowering of its rates.
This could come about in the event of a management change in Meralco. Its lower rates would drastically drop once the onerous contracts entered into by the company with power generators owned by the Lopezes – First Gen and First Gas – are rescinded.
The Lopez IPPs had been drawing and will continue to draw for the duration of their 25-year contracts about P20 billion in capacity fees each year from Meralco.
Says Garcia: “Meralco customers at present pay the Lopez IPPs even for undelivered power, on top of the many questionable pass-on charges by the company, including the cost of power it itself uses in its offices.”
Garcia, who remains on the board of Meralco pending the appointment by SMC of its choices to replace the GSIS-appointed board members, says that Meralco must also be stopped from collecting system loss charges to cover the cost of power lost due to its distribution inefficiency and due to pilferage.
When will Winston Garcia stop his anti-Meralco crusade? Is it possible that SMC will keep Winston on the Meralco board to continue his crusade of reform in the power utility? That would make things more interesting. One can hardly imagine a Meralco without a Winston Garcia.
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For the first time, on Novermber 10, I was invited to the Jojo Binay Cup, a golf tournament that started in 1995. This one was at Ayala Alabang which is a course that I used to hate. I don’t anymore; this time around, I had a reasonable score.
The food was also super and the raffle prizes were among the best I have ever seen. (When the raffle prizes are that good; one can get frustrated when he does not get anything better than a genuine Lacoste bag. Luckily, I stopped to talk to Allen Macasaet, my Abante publisher, who passed on to me the Johnnie Walker Green Label that he won because “I don’t drink.” Would that there would be more such generous teetotalers in this world!)
Jojo’s Birthday was 11/11 (which was also Armistice Day after World War I and is the birthday of my brother Jake as well as that of the late Vice President Doy Laurel who was remembered at a memorial golf game at Manila Golf Club that teed off on 11/11 at 11:00 o’clock).
At his birthday celebration in the Makati City Hall, Jojo talked about running for higher office. His present term ends in 2010 and he has decided to support his Vice Mayor Elmer Mercado in his run for Mayor. As for Jojo, he wants to continue in politics but on the national stage. Senator? Vice President? President?
Whichever it is, there is no doubt that Jojo can do the job. What needs doing is to win the election. That is a bit harder to do in this country that chooses its national leaders based solely on popularity, without any consideration whether the candidate can do the job for which he is running. Consider that most of the competent ones in this country are also not necessarily popular. In fact, being competent may bring one’s popularity rating way down; while singing and dancing like some fool on the campaign stage will make one even more popular.
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hvp 11.12.08)
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