Bacolod City – Laban ng Mamamayan sa Monopolyo at Pribatisasyon (LAMP) in a statement slammed the recently-finalized contract between Negros Electric Power Corporation (NEPC) and Aboitiz Power, stating that the additional 20MW of power supply will only make electricity prices higher, as it will be sourced from the Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) coal plant, an “expensive and climate-destructive fuel source”.
“Their promises of improved reliability and cost-efficiency is a lie. Coal is one of the most expensive sources of energy, and data shows that it is also the culprit behind 50% of power outages in the country, prone to unplanned shutdowns especially during storms. It is also one of the biggest contributors to climate change, intensifying typhoons that drown our homes not unlike the painful experience of Tino. This contract with Aboitiz is a betrayal to the ordinary Filipino who are about to drown not just in more floods, but in higher electricity bills,” said Vincent Flores of LAMP.
The move comes two years after the highly-contested Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between CENECO and MORE Power in 2023–an agreement that promised lower electricity rates and a reliable power supply for the 220,000 households formerly served by the cooperative. Instead, consumers today confront excessive charges, persistent service failures, and continued reliance on dirty energy.
“NEPC has not only failed to deliver its commitments to consumers, it has deepened the very energy problems it vowed to solve. Privatization of public services will always benefit the corporations first, because profit is the ultimate goal more than public interest. They still have to recover from the millions they used to allegedly bribe people to vote for the JVA anyway, and those extra charges, along with expensive coal power, are being passed on to our monthly bills,” added Flores.
The TVI coal plant in Toledo City, Cebu supplying the additional 20MW for NEPC has been under fire in the past year due to its “illegal” expansion, with the project having been greenlit by the Department of Energy (DOE) despite the existing coal moratorium. Power for People Coalition (P4P) filed an Ombudsman case for graft and corruption against previous DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla, highlighting the questionable favors he is affording the TVI expansion project of Aboitiz that he was previously a high-ranking director of.
“The people of Toledo City have been suffering from chronic cardio-respiratory illnesses, skin rashes, livelihood loss, and contaminated air, water, and soil that residents attribute to the continued operations of the TVI coal plant. New contracts like this with NEPC only extend the life of coal plants and make more people suffer, when they should have been phased out a long time ago,” said Bishop Gerry Alminaza, convenor of the Save Tañon Strait Movement.
On November 20, the Visayas electrical grid went into yellow alert following the unavailability of the two units of coal-fired power plants owned by the TVI, both of which saw “disruption in coal handling operations.”
“The recent yellow alert in the Visayas grid highlights the unreliability and inefficiency of coal-fired plants. The contract between NEPC and Aboitiz serves only to push us deeper into a dependence on high-cost energy that does not even provide reliable power,” said P4P Convenor Gerry Arances.
P4P highlighted the capabilities of renewable energy when used over fossil fuels.
“When renewable energy was introduced to the grid a year ago, Negrosanons under CENECO then had an immediate P2.40/Kwh reduction of their electric bills for the month. However, such cost reduction is a mere memory,” said Arances.
The P4P Coalition called the NEPC-Aboitiz deal a clear example of an “industry that remains captured by oligarchs, burdening ordinary Filipinos with excessive costs for billions of profit”.
“Corruption is not only in flood control projects. We should start looking at all the anomalies starting with the power sector. Long-term contracts between distribution utilities and coal plant projects should not be allowed at a time when the entire country is transitioning towards renewable energy, but the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) keeps allowing these. Aren’t they supposed to be public servants? The only thing they have been championing is corporate interests, at the expense of ordinary Filipinos,” said Arances.
