MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives and in the Senate are out to draw first blood on the Lopez-owned Manila Electric Co. next week with hearings that would center on Meralco’s high power rates as a possible result of violations of antitrust laws.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago Wednesday told reporters the Joint Congressional Power Commission (Powercom) would look on Monday into Meralco’s power purchases from Lopez-owned independent power producers (IPPs).

Santiago chairs the Powercom with the President’s son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, who also announced Wednesday that the House energy committee, which he heads, had scheduled its own hearing on Tuesday on Meralco’s exorbitant rates.

Santiago said that the Powercom would investigate claims that Meralco’s rates were high because it was buying power from the Lopez IPPs.

“It might be a violation of the penal provisions against antitrust. The antitrust provisions are found in the provision against restraints or monopoly,” Santiago said.

In an interview with reporters, Santiago said: “We will not discuss whether Meralco should be run by the Lopez group or the government. What we will look into is why is our electricity rates so high when the government claims it has already lowered its power rates sold to Meralco? Why is it buying low and selling high?”

Meralco president Jesus P. Francisco, Meralco director and Government Service Insurance System Chair Winston Garcia, and Meralco vice president Ivanna G. de la Peña head the list of guests and resource persons invited by the Powercom.

Congressman Arroyo said his committee would summon representatives from Meralco as well as those from National Power Corp., National Transmission Corp., Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Finance.

Not an investigation but …

“I don’t want to call it an investigation. The consensus is that we will all be hearing generally how to bring down the price of electricity,” Congressman Arroyo said in an interview.

“First of all, the main issue for the day is transparency,” he said. He said members of his committee had many questions to ask on how Meralco had come up with its exorbitant rates.

“As they claim, they have a net profit of P530 million,” he said. “What’s keeping them from giving something back to the people.”

Meralco declared a net income of P532 million for the first quarter of last year. It declared a net income of P655 million for the first quarter of this year, registering a 23-percent hike for the period compared to last year’s net income.

“If looking into their contracts, looking at their transactions, is a process in which we can bring down the prices of electricity, then I believe that this is the right thing to do,” Arroyo said. “This is nothing political.”

GSIS takeover bid

The hearings were scheduled in the midst of a media offensive by GSIS Chair Garcia who declared he would seek a change in Meralco management and would file fraud charges against the firm for overcharging consumers.

Garcia’s moves followed a plea by Ms Arroyo to businessmen on Friday for support in her fight against Meralco to bring power rates down. Malacañang has said that Ms Arroyo’s initiative had nothing to do with Garcia’s takeover bid or the critical position taken against her administration by the Lopezes’ radio-television network ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita Wednesday confirmed that Garcia was talking with other government corporation such as Land Bank and Development Bank of the Philippines in a bid to wrest control of Meralco. He stressed that Malacañang was taking a hands-off position on the GSIS initiative.

“They are government corporations. Whatever decision is made you can be very sure that the (GSIS) will look after the welfare of the greater majority of (electricity) users,” Ermita said.

Gov’t can run Meralco

Ermita dismissed suggestions—made earlier by Sen. Joker Arroyo—that only the Lopezes were capable of running Meralco.

“Government always has the capability to run such a public utility,” Ermita said. “This has been proven in the past years.”

Also Wednesday, the Department of Trade and Industry announced that the Energy Regulatory Commission had agreed to hear a DTI petition to lower power rates and had scheduled a hearing on June 3.

The petition includes demands for bigger discounts for low-income consumers and the issuance of an order to Meralco to refrain from buying in the wholesale electricity spot market, which involves commercial power producers. It also calls on Meralco to refrain from passing on to consumers such losses as pilferage.

“All of these, if there’s a favorable decision from ERC, will result in lower power cost for Meralco customers,” said Vic Dimagiba of DTI’s Bureau of Trade Regulation and Consumer Protection.

DENR, too

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes also said that he was meeting on Monday with representatives of the power industry to seek ways of easing the impact of high power rates.

“Our job is to ensure that our power rates are affordable to the consumers,” Reyes said. “Prices of gasoline and rice and the cost of living have been increasing. We don’t want to aggravate the condition of our masses by increasing power rates any further.”