Secession

Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, has been trying very hard the past few days to overshoot the runway. He seems to be succeeding.

He initiated hostilities at the end of January in a Davao City speech that seemed so throughly off the handle. He accused the sitting President of drug abuse without providing any evidence for the astounding claim – except to say he saw reports from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) that included the President’s name. PDEA promptly denied President Bongbong Marcos was ever on any of their watchlists.

During that Davao City speech, Duterte warned that the sitting President could be booted out of office, repeating the fate his father suffered. But no group of personality remotely capable of mounting an uprising seconded the former president’s warning. There is nothing in the keg to even make uprising a probability.

Next, Duterte called for the secession of Mindanao from the Republic. He declared that no presidential administration (including his, presumably) lifted the island from its sorry state.

As the first president from Mindanao, Duterte had the best opportunity to dramatically uplift his island. He bears responsibility for failing to achieve that.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, all the bona fide secessionists, rejected Duterte’s call. All the Moro tribes went to hell and back fighting for the lost cause of secession. They do not seem inclined to do that again.

The only Christian leader in Mindanao to actually lead a movement of secession was broadcaster Reuben Canoy. He issued passports and a separate currency for the island. But in the main, he was dismissed as a crackpot.

The former president named congressman Pantaleon Alvarez, infamously ousted from the speakership by an alliance that included Sara Duterte, as point person for the secessionist project. Given Alvarez’s skills set and diminished political clout, however, few are ready to give the secessionist call any credence.

The former president is testing the limits of free speech in his recent utterances. In another time, he might have been simply hauled to jail for the crime of sedition. The National Security Adviser did warn that force could be unleashed if this matter went beyond idle talk. Otherwise, the call to secession is treated as comedy.

The more Duterte pushes along this current agitational line, the more he will lose political traction. He courts being dismissed as irrelevant.

Extension

Rep. Joey Salceda, the House’s resident economic sage, filed a bill extending Meralco’s franchise for another 25 years. The power distributor’s current franchise expires in 2028.

Meralco currently serves the Mega Manila area, the center of gravity of the nation’s economy. Over half of the country’s electricity is distributed by this large entity.

In addition to the coverage of the existing franchise, the proposed extension includes a provision that will authorize Meralco to expand its operations when requested by localities adjacent to its area of operations. This recognizes the request of several municipalities south and north of Metro Manila to be included in the Meralco service area.

The requests are spurred by the poor quality and higher cost of services delivered by existing electric cooperatives. Electricity supplies delivered by the cooperatives are not only more expensive, they are also unreliable.

Analysts have concluded that the present setup of electricity cooperatives do not encourage investments in new technology that will bring their services up to grade. This is another policy debate that ought to be opened. At any rate, we can expect some resistance to the franchise extension, with provision for service area enlargement, from interests entrenched in the current inefficient cooperative setup.

There have been stray proposals to break up the Meralco franchise area into two or three parts. Such proposals are inspired mainly by the desire of other conglomerates to grab a slice of the business. Even as no economic studies have been produced to show that breaking up the Meralco service areas will improve efficiency, interested parties have tried to seed discontent against the distribution utility.

Meralco, for its part, has demonstrated that the present coverage area allows for optimal economies of scale. The 120-year-old company sells power at lower costs than the cooperatives, negotiated supply agreements that ensure stable supply for the metropolitan area, ventured into renewable energy generation capacities and improved reliability. The distribution utility currently serves 38 cities and 73 municipalities in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.

The best testimony in Meralco’s favor is that several towns on the fringes of its service area want to fall under the utility’s coverage. This is the only means they see to enable their localities to develop. That testimony should silence critics driven by interests that simply want a cut of the business.

In the preface to House Bill 9793 seeking to extend Meralco’s franchise, Salceda argues early renewal will “ensure the continuous and uninterrupted supply and distribution of quality and reliable electric service to the customers within its franchise area in consideration of the nature of the vital service it provides.”

Energy generation and distribution is a capital intensive and technology-driven industry. Companies such as Meralco require as much certainty long into the future to be able to plan its operations according to the best guidance of utility economics.

The Mega Manila area is the hub of the nation’s economy. Much is at stake in Salceda’s ability to shepherd this bill through the murky legislative grind.