PRESIDENT Arroyo on Monday reminded her
allies in Congress of the urgency of passing the proposed
amendment to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA)
to bring down power rates.
At the Lakas national directorate assembly at
the Manila Hotel in Manila yesterday, she noted that the bill, a
priority one of her administration remains, have yet to pass
both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
She said the passage of the EPIRA amendment
is one way of protecting the public against "unreasonably high
electric rates" brought about by rising oil prices which is
beyond the government's control.
Arroyo said the administration and its party
have already taken and continue to take action "to reduce the
pain on our people of these high prices," including proposing a
rebate system for those with low electricity consumption.
The President's son, Pampanga Rep. Juan
Miguel Arroyo and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte authored
the bill seeking to amend the EPIRA law (RA 9136) by lowering
the current Napocor privatization threshold from 70 percent to
50 percent to encourage retail competition and make the energy
sector more attractive to foreign investors. The bill has
already hurdled the committee level in the Lower House.
In the Senate, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile filed
the counterpart bill that would amend EPIRA to "prevent powerful
generators and distributors from passing on the costs of their
inefficiency, mistakes and questionable, onerous contracts to
their end users."
Enrile's bill also provides that no provisional authority for
electricity rate increase may be issued by the Energy Regulatory
Commission. - Jocelyn D. Montemayor
