A few months back he was the target of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s
tirades regarding the onerous contracts (Maynilad Water) alongside the Ayala’s
(Manila Water), and since the Chief Executive have apologized to the words he
has said.
But now, Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) is making himself the target again of
the President two weeks after the apology, this time the issue is with respect
to the market abuse of his group’s power utility, Manila Electric Co. or
MERALCO.
Bayan Muna partylist cited complaints of doubling or tripling in their
Meralco electricity bills that Meralco summarily attributed to a surge in power
consumption when millions of Filipinos were forced to stay at home since the
enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was declared by the national government on
March 16.
(photo credit to owner) |
House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Representative Carlos
Isagani Zarate said President Duterte and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)
themselves debunked Meralco’s claim with their report that the Luzon power gird
had an excess capacity due to lack of demand in the last two months.
“How can consumption increase when the demand is going down from as we
enter the summer period?” asked Zarate.
Bayan Muna
chair Neri Colmenares has the
opinion that the doubling of the monthly power consumption might be in direct
violation of the Bayanihan Law which has one of is provisions which states that
President Duterte is given the emergency power to regulate power supply and
protect against profiteering during the lockdown.
Colmenares said Meralco should not even increase its rates as it has
claimed “force majeure” among its supply contracts which meant it would l no
longer pay its contract demand to its suppliers due to the COVID crisis.
Further
Colmenares said the Energy Regulatory Commission should look into complaints of
surge in electricity bills under Section 4 of the Bayanihan Law which empowered
it “to regulate the supply power, fuel, energy and water and protect the people
from profiteering, cartels, monopolies and other pernicious practices.”
“Meralco’s
skyrocketing rates provide consumers and lawmakers alike painful proof that the
law of supply and demand does not work when only one company – a monopoly like Meralco – controls the
supply of a product or service,” he said.
“We also cannot expect Meralco to pick the
least cost of electricity from among genco suppliers when Meralco also owns the GenCos,” he added.
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