boardroom brawl
is brewing in Meralco, with GSIS’ Winston Garcia demanding greater access to
Meralco’s records as a matter of protecting the state pension fund’s 30 percent
stake in the utility. Earlier, Oscar Lopez conceded it was well within the right
of GSIS to gain access to the records, subject of course to the standard rules
on confidentiality. Now, Lopez has taken a hardline stance, saying that if
Garcia wants to run Meralco, then his family is willing to sell its holdings –
naturally at a fair price
The Senate and the House, meanwhile, have launched an
investigation into why power rates continue to be high despite National Power
Corp.’s decision to cut its selling rate to Meralco. The investigation, to be
conducted by the oversight committee on the Electric Power Industry Reform Act,
will not touch on the GSIS-Lopez family. This was the assurance of Sen. Miriam
Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on energy. But how much is Miriam’s word
worth?
Shades of the titanic battle between Ferdinand Marcos and the
Lopezes are resurfacing. The discredited Arroyo administration is accused of
playing the populist game, with the Lopezes as the convenient scapegoat for
rising power costs. The Lopezes, on their part, are again visited by the old
charges of abusing their power by gouging Meralco consumers through sweetheart
deals.
The lines are drawn. Let’s see how the battle will shape up
in the coming days.
Meanwhile, let’s remind the protagonists of the possible
collateral damage to those who are situated only at the periphery of the
fighting.
Gloria Arroyo, for instance, has been coming out with
pronouncements that Meralco should stop buying during peak demand from the
wholesale electricity spot market. We take this to mean that Meralco should be
compelled to enter into long-term supply contracts for its needs during peak
hours.
The pronouncements play to the gallery, but these could
derail the market reforms called for under Epira. The key to reforms is the
privatization of Napocor power plants. At present, a little over 50 percent of
Napocor plants has been privatized, with the expectation that the 70 percent
privatization mandated by Epira would be reached before the end of the year.
The big power plants with supply contracts have already been
sold. Those on the auction block are the very plants which need to sell through
the wholesale spot market. Now, who in his right mind would buy these Napocor
plants if he could not sell the power generated?
Gloria is shooting her mouth off without engaging her brain. Isn’t there
anybody in the Palace with enough knowledge of the power industry to advise her?
