PHOTO courtesy of Anakbayan
MANILA, Philippines – Student activists picketed infront of Malacañang on Monday morning to protest the government’s alleged inaction on the price hikes.
The students, led by youth group Anakbayan and #StrikeThe Hike, held placards, criticizing the government and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) for the high price of electricity in the country.
They called for the ouster of President Benigno Aquino III, whom they tagged as “Price Hike King.”
“For the longest time that Meralco was pushing for its rate increase, there was no clear action on the part of the government,” Dianne Marie Solmayor, Anakbayan secretary general and #StrikeTheHike spokesperson, told Inqurier.net.
She slammed Aquino for saying that he did not have a “magic wand” to solve the problem of high power costs.
“What kind of president would give that kind of statement and wouldn’t do anything to stop the unreasonable price increases?” Solmayor asked.
She said their group is calling for the repeal of the “Electric Power Industry Reform Act” and an end to the privatization of the government’s power assets.
Meanwhile, members of Gabriela trooped to Meralco’s Kamuning branch in Quezon City to also protest against Meralco’s P4.15 per kilowatt-hour rate increase, which was temporarily halted by the Supreme Court.
The protesters stayed at the parking lot of the building and encouraged paying customers of Meralco to have their billing statements stamped with the words “Paid Under Protest.”
The Energy Regulatory Commission last year allowed Meralco’s P4.15 kilowatt-hour rate increase, only to be slapped with a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) by the Supreme Court.
The distribution utility claimed that they were forced to augment their energy supply with more expensive sources after the Malampaya natural gas plant’s month-long maintenance shutdown. But congressional hearings on the issue indicated that the simultaneous shutdown of other power plants and the purchase of energy from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) contributed to the high generation charge.