‘Deregulation of power sector now ill-advised’

A leading member of the Senate majority coalition said yesterday the deregulation of the power industry is ill-advised at this time, while it is in the national interest that the power-generating plants owned by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) are privatized.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, made this assessment of the impact that the proposed Omnibus Power Act would create on the national economy and consumers.

Enrile, a member of the bicameral conference committee that has been trying to harmonize and unify the House and Senate versions of the Omnibus Power Act, warned that an ill-conceived and half-baked deregulation of the power sector could result in devastating and irreparable damage to the economy.

He said that deregulating the power sector at this time is ill-advised because this will unduly subject the precarious economy to the accompanying convulsions of shifting from a regulated system to a deregulated open market.

Enrile said the idea of creating competition and consumer choice through deregulation is only theoretically true.

He said there must be proper rules and safeguards to ensure that true competition really happens. The rules contained in the current Omnibus Power Act are not good enough to protect consumers from the evils of monopoly, market manipulation and abuses in contracting, Enrile said.

Meanwhile, Enrile said he fully supports the privatization of Napocor’s power-generating plants or gencos.

He said it is to the country’s best interests to solve the financial problems of the ailing state-owned power firm, and encourage the entry of the private sector in building new power plants to avoid crippling power shortages starting in 2004.