Senators hail high court order stopping power rate hike

Sen. Antonio Trillanes III INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Senators welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to stop the Manila Electric Co. from implementing within the next 60 days a staggered P4.15 hike in the price of electricity.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes, who sought a Senate inquiry into the unprecedented rate increase, said the congressional probe should continue to ensure a fair collection of charges by the distribution firm.

“It’s a victory for the consumers.  We should sustain the pressure so the freeze would permanent,” said Trillanes, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security.

“In the meantime, we shall find ways to avert future spikes in power rates.  We will also continue with the investigation and the auditing to make sure we are not being manipulated by Meralco,” Trillanes added.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, chairman of the Senate committee on energy, said the court’s temporary restraining order was an opportunity for the government to address the issues regarding the steep rise in power costs.

Osmeña presided over the Senate inquiry into the rate hike last week.

“I am very happy about the injunction.  I hope the government moves faster to make corrections on this market failure,” Osmeña said.

Sen. Benigno Aquino IV said the Supreme Court’s 60-day temporary restraining order was a welcome development since the investigation of alleged collusion among power generation companies had yet to be completed.

Aquino chairs the Senate committee on trade, commerce and entrepreneurship.

“The decision is welcome as the tri-partite committee formed to investigate collusion is yet to finish its findings on the matter,” Aquino said in a text message.

Trillanes over the weekend threatened to move for an audit of Meralco’s books if it pushed through with its planned rate increase for January.

“They said there will be no increase in January but it appears that the deception they’re trying to do here is on the computation, that the generation cost will still be based on the December rate of more than P7,” Trillanes said over radio station dzBB.

“The point of reckoning should be before the Malampaya shortage when the price was just more than P5.60.  They don’t have an increase in January but the basis is still the December rate,” Trillanes added.

Under the terms the Energy Regulatory Commission approved, the P4.15 per kilowatt hour rate hike will be distributed in the months of December at P2.41/kWh, February at P1/kWh and March at P0.44/kWh.

Trillanes was in a quandary why the generation cost would remain at a high level when the demand will be lower and the supply higher.

“The December increase remains in effect in January even if they no longer have the reason of the plants shutting down.  Meralco no longer has a reason to buy expensive electricity,” Trillanes said.

“Many of our countrymen in Metro Manila will be on vacation and many companies, offices and factories have also shut down operations because of the Christmas break.  So the consumption should be low,” Trillanes added.

The high cost of power should no longer be reflected in January, Trillanes said.

“They said they won’t increase in January, that they will just collect the generation cost. So the question here is why the generation remains high at over P7 per kilowatt hour?” Trillanes said.

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