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The
government’s two-pronged drive to bring down the Manila
Electric Co.’s (Meralco) predatory power rates has
gained a lot of ground in the past week, and it looks
like the Lopezes, who control the Meralco, are in one
hell of a jam, whether they admit it or not.
In
Congress, the move to amend the regressive provisions of
the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) is
proceeding at full steam.
It was
perhaps providential that the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC)
had made the mistake of formally conveying, in a joint
letter to President Arroyo, their objection to the move
to amend the controversial law. This act of meddling, of
course, drew bipartisan fire from both chambers, which
are in the midst of floor deliberations on the proposed
amendments.
Perhaps
nobody sounded more pissed off than Sen. Juan Ponce
Enrile, chief proponent of the Senate version of the
proposed Epira amendments. “Who are they to tell us what
to do and what not to do?” he fumed in a privileged
speech. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the
Senate Committee on Energy, was no less furious. She led
the move to call in the leaders of the JFC to make them
explain why they seemed to be overstaying their welcome.
The JFC leaders are scheduled to face the Senate today.
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. described the
JFC’s letter as an act of “impertinence,” adding, “we
cannot allow ourselves to be bamboozled by anyone. . .
.” Sen. Joker Arroyo wryly noted the JFC move had
boomeranged and provoked a bipartisan lament against its
members, which include chambers from the United States,
Australia-New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Europe and South
Korea. Sen. Edgardo Angara explained the JFC was
actually lobbying for the status quo, which he said was
highly profitable for them.
In the
House, Rep. Luis Villafuerte, cochairman of the House
energy committee, twitted the JFC for its
“presumptuousness and lack of circumspection.” He
explained that “amending the Epira is an idea whose time
is come.” The abuses committed by Meralco in the name of
this highly defective law are now public knowledge.
“Public outrage over these excesses has provided the
momentum to amend; the advocacy has simply assumed a
life of its own,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Lopez group’s management grip on Meralco
remains under heavy siege right in its corporate
headquarters. The siege is being led by the scrappy
president-general manager of the Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS), Winston Garcia. It will be
recalled that the Lopez group, led by Manolo Lopez,
allegedly used unvalidated proxies to get its group of
five reelected to the Meralco board during the company’s
stockholders’ meeting. The election was held in defiance
of an order issued by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC).
The SEC
was about to call Lopez and other Meralco officials to
task for this brazen act of defiance when, like a rabbit
from a magician’s hat, the Lopez group suddenly produced
a temporary restraining order from the Court of Appeals
(CA). The TRO, to Garcia’s dismay, effectively stopped
the SEC from performing its regulatory function
concerning the proxy war. Garcia expected the SEC not
only to cite the Lopez group in contempt, but also to
declare the latter’s use of unvalidated proxies as
illegal. With such a verdict, the tide would have
turned, and Garcia would have majority control of the
board. But the TRO effectively stymied Garcia’s
offensive.
Unfazed,
Garcia is now asking that Associate Justice Vicente
Roxas inhibit himself from the certiorari case for being
allegedly biased, as shown by his undue haste in issuing
the TRO without giving the GSIS the opportunity to air
its side. GSIS lawyers led by Estrella Elamparo also
claim that Justice Roxas was seen in the company of
Meralco lawyers with a ready-made draft of a TRO even
before the hearing could begin.
GSIS
lawyers have expressed confidence that the CA would find
the wisdom to quash the TRO and allow the SEC to perform
its regulatory function without any need for further
intervention on its part.
With the
GSIS’s battering ram pounding relentlessly on the Lopez
fortress, and Congress cranked up for action on the
Epira, the dominance of the Lopez group in the
electric-power distribution business is apparently
coming to an end.
The
public can hardly wait because Garcia’s campaign promise
was that he would bring down power rates by as much as
20 percent within two months of taking over the Meralco.
A 20-percent slash in my monthly Meralco bill would mean
at least P800 more for my food budget.
Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com |
