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THE
Senate energy committee sent out invitations on Tuesday
to at least seven presidents of various foreign business
groups to appear at its hearing on Friday even as the
senators prepared to grill members of the Joint Foreign
Chambers of Commerce (JFC) for “meddling” in
congressional efforts to bring down high power rates.
Sen.
Miriam Santiago, energy committee chairman, confirmed
that among those invited were Rick Santos of the
American Chamber of Commerce; Richard Barclay of the
Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce; Stewart Hall
of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce; Hubert D’Aboville
of the European Chamber of Commerce; Toshifumi Inami of
the Japanese Chamber of Commerce; Jae Jang of the Korean
Chamber of Commerce; and Shameem Qurashi of the
Philippine Association of Multinational Companies
Regional Headquarters Inc.
Philippine government officials were also asked to
testify at Friday’s hearing, including Energy Secretary
Angelo Reyes, National Power Corp. president Cyril del
Callar, Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management
Corp. president Jose Ibazeta, Energy Regulatory
Commission chairman Rodolfo Albano Jr., as well as
Ernesto Pantangco, president of the Philippine
Independent Power Producers Association.
According to Santiago, the committee moved to convene a
public hearing in the wake of the collective
condemnation by irate senators protesting what Sen.
Joker Arroyo denounced as an “impertinent” act by the
JFC members in writing a letter asking Malacañang
neither to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act
(Epira) nor take any action to renegotiate onerous
Ramos-era power contracts that compel consumers to pay
even for electricity they did not use.
In its
May 27 letter to President Arroyo, the JFC urged the
government to neither renegotiate the government
contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) nor
amend the Epira, drawing the ire of senators who took
turns censuring the foreign business groups for
“meddling with lawmakers’ efforts to reduce power
rates.”
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. explained,
however, that the Energy Committee hearing would be “a
good opportunity to enable the foreign investors to
express their views on the issue of high power rates.
“Personally, I don’t think they meant any offense but
just the same, there is the implication that they are
trying to tell us [what to do] which is not good.”
“Nobody
is saying they should not follow our laws and from my
reading of their letter, they [JFC heads] are asking the
President, if possible, not to touch the Epira law. That
must be the tenor of their letter. It was addressed to
the President, not even addressed to us,” Pimentel
pointed out.
The
lawmaker played down concerns that amending the Epira
and renegotiating IPPs would negatively affect
investors’ confidence, as the JFC warned in its
controversial letter.
“No, I
don’t think so,” he said. “The idea precisely is that we
should balance our reaction [to the JFC letter] and look
at it as an expression of a different point of view by
the foreign chambers and that it is part of freedom of
speech as long as we do not take it that they’re
dictating to us, which we cannot allow.”
Sen.
Loren Legarda explained that the Senate’s initiative to
amend Republic Act 9136, or the Epira, was triggered by
the urgency of taking measures to lower power rates.
“The
intention is to bring relief to consumers reeling from
high power costs. It is the government’s responsibility
to protect consumers and, as legislators, it is the duty
of Congress to take remedial measures toward this end,”
Legarda added.
At the
same time, Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan
noted that these foreign companies and investors groups
are similarly interested as the lawmakers in bringing
down power costs as the excessively high electricity
rates “eat up a sizeable amount of their profits and
affects their return on investments.”
The JFC,
in its letter to Mrs. Arroyo, had cautioned that
amending Epira and renegotiating power contracts with
the onerous take-or-pay provisions “would impact the
credibility and put at risk the ongoing power-sector
reforms. We appeal to the Executive and Legislative
branches of government to instead focus its efforts on
implementing Epira in a timely fashion,” it added. |
