'Real empowerment' of Filipinos

It was supposed to be a welcome news that the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has cut down anew its power rates effective this month. This is to reflect and to pass on to their customers in Metro Manila and suburbs the lower costs of power bought by the Lopez-owned utility firm from independent power producers (IPP).

Although Meralco is largely a power distributor, its sister company First Gas Corp. owns and operates three IPP generating plants. Meralco also gets 36.4 percent of its power supply requirements from the state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor). The average Napocor rate also went down by 19.55 centavos. Meralco’s decision to slash rates came mainly from the lower generation charges they got from their own IPPs and from Napocor.

But the fact remains we have the highest cost of power among countries in this region. The high cost of power in the Philippines remains a major disincentive, if not deterrent to new business interests. The reason for the very expensive electricity has always been blamed to the “take-or-pay” of IPPs. This “take-or-pay” provision in IPP contracts was authorized by the emergency powers that Congress gave to former President Fidel V. Ramos under the Power Crisis Act of 1992.

Filipino households were only too willing to pay the high price of electricity if only to have uninterrupted power service during those times we suffered long hours of blackouts. This “take-or-pay” encouraged IPPs to construct baseload plants all over the country. With more than sufficient power supply, our electricity service stabilized. It was then we finally realized we have been paying too much for our electricity.

Our standby power supply situation has been rapidly thinning out to worrisome levels lately as our economic growth consumes more electricity. More manifestations of these came two weeks ago when an almost- day-long blackout hit Napocor’s Visayas grid. Normal power situation was restored two to three days later. Rotating blackouts occur now more frequently in many Visayan provinces, including the tourist paradise island of Boracay.

While I was in Subic Bay Freeport a couple of weeks ago, our weekend vacation was cut short by blackout. I was told that rotating blackout occurrences have been interrupting operations of the various Freeport establishments. The same blackout situations are also happening to the rest of Luzon provinces as far as Pangasinan where some of my relatives used to text me about it.

Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who comes from the fifth district of Pangasinan, confirmed this to us during a presentation to The STAR editors and House reporters of his advocacy for the re-commissioning of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Cojuangco warned that there is actually a projected power supply shortage in Luzon by the year 2012 to 2013 unless new baseload plants come on the stream. So whoever is elected President in 2010, he pointed out, he or she faces such prospects of another power crisis unless the administration of President Arroyo makes a decision now whether or not to rehabilitate and operate the BNPP.

Cojuangco strongly believes operating the 620-megawatt BNPP, located in Morong, Bataan, is the best option for the government to avert the recurrence of the period of literally dark days in the Philippines. Cojuangco cited the fact that the national government wholly owns the BNPP. Specifically, the BNPP is among the non-performing assets attached to the Department of Finance after the Philippine government recently completed the full payment of $2.1 billion foreign loans used to build it. Although not in operation, the national government allocates as much as P40 million a year in its annual budget for the upkeep of this “white elephant”.

The BNPP facility was ready for full commercial operations in 1986 when former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino decided to mothball this following the deadly industrial accident that killed 32 workers in the nuclear-powered plant in Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in April that year. Aside from this safety concern, the BNPP is a very emotional issue at that time because it is regarded as one of the symbols of the so-called “behest loans” and corruption of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

This is why, Cojuangco said, he consciously refrains from any mention of the name of Marcos or his “Auntie Cory” in trying to convince his colleagues in Congress to support his advocacy to operate the BNPP. Cojuangco filed a bill in Congress in June last year seeking to grant legislative authorization to the government to open and operate the BNPP.

Unfortunately, he rued, an unsolicited bid to rehabilitate the BNPP submitted by San Miguel Corp. has complicated his advocacy. The SMC has acquired last year 37 percent stockholdings at Meralco. In fact, SMC will assume four seats in the Meralco Board of Directors in their scheduled board meeting on May 26.

The 52-year old Congressman happens to be one of the four children of Marcos crony-businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of SMC, one of the country’s largest business conglomerates.

But the young Cojuangco swears to high heavens he does not have anything to do with the operations of the SMC or any of his father’s various business interests. He has begged his father to withdraw SMC’s unsolicited bid to refute persistent talks that he is pushing for the operations of BNPP for personal gains of their family.

He stressed the fact that his advocacy for the BNPP started as early as 2001 when he first became Congressman before he filed his pet bill. Cojuangco, who is now on his third and last term as Congressman, expressed hope he would be able to push the approval of his pet bill by August this year at the House.

Counting out former Cory Cabinet members now Senators Joker Arroyo and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Cory’s only son, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, Cojuangco is hopeful to get at least half of the Senators to vote for his pet bill’s approval before he bows out of Congress.

In terms of cheaper power rates that would mean savings they can spend for more basic items like food, Cojuangco insists. The operation of the BNPP is the “real empowerment” he could contribute to serve the basic needs of the Filipino people.