Solar power vs subsidized power

Even before President Rodrigo Duterte made mention of his desire for government to develop alternative renewable energy sources, solar and wind turbine has slowly but surely been gaining headway as a viable energy source for communities outside Metro Manila and other urban areas. In fact, the footprint of modern windmills or turbines and solar power plants have spread rapidly that it has been considered as a serious threat by the traditional power generators that people call “electric power cooperatives.” Even if the new players or renewable energy proponents are not in direct competition, many electric power cooperatives apparently don’t want the entry or even the nearby presence of wind mills and solar power plants because this would take away future business or territory, expose the inefficiency and false business models of electric coops that would eventually redefine how power generation and distribution is done in the Philippines.

The animosity of the electric power coops is so severe that they have recently banded together and bankrolled a PR initiative calling on President Duterte to review what they call “the Super franchise” that Congress gave to Solar Philippines in order to operate in several island provinces including parts of Mindoro, the island of Camiguin, Tawi-Tawi, and a handful of smaller islands that Leviste labeled as un-served or extremely under-served by electric power coops on site. The campaign against Solar Philippines and Leviste even got to the point that doubt and suspicions were cast that former Senator Loren Legarda was the strong hand that pushed for the so-called Super Franchise. Leviste for his part mocked the label “Super Franchise” because he calls it nothing more than a “business permit” or authority to operate a public utility that does not give them any advantage much less any subsidies or incentives unlike the old and inefficient electric power cooperatives that have been receiving billions of pesos of diesel fuel subsidies since time immemorial.

What many consumers don’t know is that a small portion of our monthly electric bill goes to subsidizing or helping electric power cooperatives pay for the cost of diesel or bunker fuel to generate electricity. This is an incentive of government that is shouldered by Filipinos amounting to an estimated P20 billion a year covering 20 years and totaling to P400 billion! To add insult to injury, while many of us are paying for the subsidy, the electric power cooperatives actually charge higher for electric power that is often unreliable and inefficient. This same subsidy was adapted and passed on to the pioneers of solar power farms in the past but under the Duterte administration, the Department of Energy scrapped all such subsidies. As such, newcomers like Leviste and Solar Philippines are on their own and do not receive any subsidies. This is apparently what scares the electric power cooperatives. If the Duterte administration and Congress eventually recognize or realize that diesel generated power plants and the subsidies given to them is like throwing away taxpayers money, the bread and butter of those cooperatives might be taken away. P20 billion a year is not chump change!

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With all due respect to President Duterte, I have to say that I was both shocked and disappointed that he included the LTO as one of the “worst performing” agencies of government that needed to shape up during his 4th SONA. While the LTO was one of the most hated and vilified agencies during the Aquino administration and probably until the first year of the Duterte administration, the LTO under Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante successfully corrected many problems, introduced many solutions to the point that they turned the tide of public opinion or sentiment toward the agency. I have no doubts that there were indeed many complaints called in to “8888” the presidential complaints and action line, BUT, who and what were those complaints about and whose fault or responsibility were they?

It is not everyday that I rise to defend a government agency that I am not part of, don’t work for or paid by. But as an opinion columnist, motoring journalist and taxpayer who has seen the efforts and humility shown by Galvante and his officers, I am compelled to raise questions on those complaints. For starters, the LTO serves or deals with an estimated 25 million customers and transactions annually, statistically and realistically speaking even if a few thousand callers complained about the LTO, that minute number would be a pimple and nothing more. Then there is the two-headed problem that ties up the LTO; they are merely an implementing agency and a service agency dependent on the wishes or caprice of politician/legislators and the habits and attitudes of customers. In the last year millions of motorcycle owners howled over the proposed “giant sized” license plates while Senator Dick Gordon threatened to unleash his legislative fury upon anyone who would in anyway try to temper or water down his proposals to reduce criminality connected with motorcycles.

Then there is of course the ghost from the past where thousands of vehicle owners paid for car plates that were never delivered because the LTO officials during the Aquino administration undertook a new car plates for all program that was declared unlawful if not illegal by the Commission on Audit. These license plates related issues are generally the big-ticket items that unjustly place the current LTO bosses in bad light. In addition to this there is the consumer behavior of Filipinos who create long lines at LTO offices in spite of the fact that the LTO has long adopted E-payments through Landbank, put up online appointment booking system, and even set-up Saturday business centers for those who work all week and can’t take time off. But as usual Pinoys wait until Friday before they go out of town or on Mondays at the start of the week but not mid week where there are less people. They also wait until the deadline to renew license or registration when in fact they can do so a month or weeks before the deadline! Like the President said: “The Enemy Is Us”

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