BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

PRESS Secretary Ignacio Bunye yesterday reiterated that Mala-cañang is not after the Manila Electric Co (Meralco) but the observance of responsible business practices and the lowering of power costs.

"Just to answer some critics, this is not about Meralco. This is about making ourselves competitive. This is about engaging in responsible corporate practices and this is about being responsible for practices that may have affected public interest," he said at a forum.

The President’s allies in the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) party have threatened to file a class suit against Meralco if it does not refund customers for passing on to them their systems loss.

The political opposition has said the government was just "squeezing" Meralco to get back at its sister company ABS-CBN broadcast network which has been critical of the government’s restrictions on media.

Bunye said the government is reviewing the power generation set-up, including the "parts of the electricity generating and distribution chain," to determine what must be done to lower the cost of electricity.

He said the review of the set-up also aims to provide inputs to the proposed amendments to the Electric Power Industry and Reform Act or Epira law.

Bunye hedged when asked if Malacañang would support the proposal of congressmen for Meralco to refund the charges for the systems loss, saying "this is about corporate responsibility, this is about taking responsibility for activities and decisions which could have affected the public in an adverse manner."

Meralco officials during the Joint Congressional Power Commission last Monday admitted the inclusion of the 72 million kilowatt-hours of electricity that they consume in the "system loss" charge imposed on consumers, which amounts to about half a billion pesos annually.

System loss is that portion of electricity which is pilfered or is lost during transmission.

Speaker Prospero Nograles urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to order Meralco to refund its consumers.

"The ERC should find out through their public hearings what actions they should take (against Meralco)," he said.

Nograles said the ERC should look into reports that Meralco overcharged its customers last April when it charged P4.9043 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) despite buying electricity from the National Power Corp. (Napocor) for only P4.01/kWh.

If true, he said, Meralco overcharged its customers P0.89/kWh just for the month of April alone.

Citing figures from Meralco’s website, Pete Ilagan, president of National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (Nasecore), said the Lopez-owned power distributor even increased its rates by P0.52/kWh last April from P4.3885/kWh in March to P4.9043.

"Meralco should refund the eighty-nine centavos with dispatch or face more public outrage," said Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing (Kampi).

Kampi president Luis Villafuerte (Camarines Sur) has said the refund must include the "systems loss" charges where consumers are charged nearly half a billion pesos a year.

Villafuerte, in a privilege speech on Wednesday, said the Lopez-owned First Gas, a power generating company, also overcharged Meralco for two-and-half years after its start-up in 2000 with billings for "ghost" deliveries of P12.99 billion a year.

The cost of the "ghost" deliveries under Meralco’s power purchase agreement was passed on to consumers.

Villafuerte said the overcharges started in June 2000 and lasted up to December 2002 when Meralco paid for power averaging 1,000 megawatts.

FINANCIAL CRACKDOWN

Rep. Liza Maza (Gabriela) denounced Malacañang’s alleged use of assets of the Government Insurance Service System in its bid to get back at the Lopez family. GSIS has a 33 percent stake in Meralco.

"Malacañang should stop pitting government employees’ funds for this apparent financial crackdown on business and media institutions that refuse to toe the line," she said.

Maza said GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia "is the last person who can speak for the interests of government employees, having repeatedly gambled government employees’ money in various speculative investments without consultation, while ignoring appeals for efficiency and transparency in the delivery of services."

"Instead of utilizing GSIS funds in this crackdown, it should instead be maximized for the increase of dividends, the delivery of retirement and pension benefits for government employees," she said.

The Gabriela party list group last year filed a resolution for an investigation into the GSIS’ "global fund management program" which allows foreign investments firms and private international fund managers to handle its funds.