Petitioners call P1,000 budget approved for ERC ‘well-deserved’

Sanlakas National Secretary-General Aaron Pedrosa said on Thursday that the P1,000 budget given by the House of Representatives for the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) was a well-deserved gesture to the Commission.

“It is high time that popular attention be given and huge pressure be continuously put on the Commission to clean up its ranks,” said Pedrosa. “The ERC’s persistent record of corruption and continuous neglect in fulfilling its obligation to regulate the electricity industry has been spelling out doom for the average electricity consumer.

“Just last year, by suspending its own regulatory procedures, the ERC had given a broad window of opportunity for Meralco to make several power supply deals with itself. The public was not at all privy to those deals, despite the fact that the high electricity charges those deals will inevitably cause largely prejudices the public good,” he added.

READ: House gives ERC measly budget of P1,000 for 2018

Pedrosa, along with a number of other petitioners from environmental organizations, filed before the ERC a Petition for Intervention on the seven Power Supply Agreements made between Meralco and its indirectly-owned generation companies.

According to Pedrosa, these agreements were submitted to the Commission without undergoing the Competitive Selection Process as mandated by the ERC Resolution No. 13, s. 2015, which the Commission itself suspended.

“In being neglectful of its mandate to regulate, the ERC not only betrays the Filipino electricity consumer, it also betrays the country’s international commitment to reduce Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” said Pedrosa.

Pedrosa noted that the 3,551 MW total capacities applied for in the seven dubious PSAs increase an already high share of coal energy in the country’s total generation mix.

The generation companies involved in the agreements largely depend on coal, an energy source known to be principally responsible for high GHG emissions, he said.

Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA) National Coordinator and petitioner Fe Bait said the ERC effectively condones the suffering of communities at the hands of highly pollutive coal plants.

The coal dependency of generation companies involved in the seven PSAs mean the construction of six more coal plants, in addition to those twenty six existing, across the country, Bait said. “So many communities are already decrying the deaths of their environment, their livelihood, and their health, all caused by exposure to the toxicities of existing coal plant operations. Clearly, the people do not need another coal plant.”

She cited a Harvard study conducted in the Philippines that found an annual estimate of 2,410 deaths due to exposure to pollution emitted by coal plants.

The study said residents of communities that host these coal plants often suffer from lung, cardiovascular, and skin diseases. Due to soil and water contamination from coal plant chemicals, the residents’ livelihood is also destroyed.

“By employing zero scrutiny over the application for the approval of these seven Meralco PSAs, the ERC proves indifferent to the well-being of communities on the ground that are compelled to suffer in order for coal-dependent companies to generate their dirty and costly energy,” Bait said.

“The ERC must urgently heed the widening calls for it to clean up its ranks and fulfill its true mandate which is to regulate not connive with – huge electricity industry players. And the Commission can start by shutting down Meralco’s shady deals with itself,” she added.