MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said Tuesday the Senate would hold a joint probe with the House of Representatives on the government’s plan to take over Manila Electric Co. to determine if it would lead to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s goal of reducing electricity bills.

“We really have to investigate Meralco because our power rates are just too high and it is raking in a lot of profits,” said Santiago in an interview with reporters.

Government Service Insurance System Chair Winston Garcia has consolidated the government financial institution’s shareholdings in Meralco in order to vote between five and six directors into Meralco’s 11-member board, he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday.

Garcia has been vocal in seeking a change in the Lopez management claiming that as a shareholder, GSIS had the right to demand transparency and good governance in the company and that GSIS’ 1.5 million members were mostly Meralco consumers and were entitled to seek a fair charge in their bills.

Palace ‘attack head’

But Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has questioned the motives of Garcia in launching an attack against the Lopezes whose media empire, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., has been critical of the Arroyo administration.

“I am just wondering by what personality does Winston Garcis claim to represent all GSIS members. Where is the mandate? If he questioned it as a private citizen, that would have fallen within his rights. His actions give one the impression that he is the attack head of Malacañang,” said Aquino.

Still, Santiago said that the Senate was compelled to look into the state takeover of Meralco as espoused by Malacañang.

Since Speaker Prospero Nograles has ordered Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, chair of the House committee on energy, to look into potential changes in the ownership of Meralco, Santiago said she would ask her counterpart in the House to hold the probe jointly possibly this Friday to avoid any redundancy.

Santiago said that the joint congressional probe should answer why Meralco power rates were so high and who was responsible for this.

RP rate highest in Asia

“The biggest question here is why our country has the highest electricity rates in Asia even after we had already sold part of Napocor (National Power Corp.) and we are planning to sell the remaining government stake,” said Santiago.

“If it is true that Napocor is lowering the power rates it is selling to Meralco, why are we not feeling any reduction in our Meralco bills? We can see a disconnect in the process. And why are we being asked to pay for their pilfered electricity or what they call system losses, why are we being asked to pay for these when we have not benefited from them?”

The Supreme Court had ruled twice that Meralco had been overcharging consumers and that Meralco had been forced to reimburse its customers, said Santiago who noted that the Joint Congressional Power Committee’s role was to ensure that electricity rates were set as low as possible.

She also said the Meralco probes were timely considering that Congress was studying several amendments to the Energy Power Reform Industry Act.