Palace spells out measures to avoid power hikes

By: Bong Lozada - 11 years ago

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma: Not us, it’s the court. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—With the continuing brouhaha over the power rate hike that has piqued the Senate’s interest to start an inquiry, Malacañang is now determined to find out the cause of the problem and avoid a repeat of such incidents in the future.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma in a media briefing Friday afternoon spelled out the measures that the government should undertake to prevent another power rate hike.

Coloma said that, first, industry players should prepare for the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya facility and other power sources to ensue that electricity is sufficient and power bills don’t spike up suddenly.

Second, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) shoud ensure there would be no collusion among industry players that would result to unjustifiable profits.

He added that any entity that violates the Electric Power Industry Reform Act should be held accountable.

“The government is committed to ensure the sufficient supply of electricity to households and industries at reasonable rates and foster a business climate that encourages continuing investments in energy development,” Coloma said.

According to Coloma, apart from the senate inquiry, the Department of Justice is doing a parallel investigation on the power rate hike of the Manila Electric Cooperative.