Consumers and multi-sectoral groups trooped to the Court of Appeals on Monday seeking the court’s intervention over the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) approval of a 1,200 MW power supply agreement (PSA) between the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and gas plant Excellent Energy Resources, Inc. (EERI) despite tariff terms risking an overrecovery of nearly one billion pesos from consumers.
The petition for certiorari questions the ERC’s decision to enable EERI to acquire an amount of 932,650,000 pesos twice over – once from selling their point-to-point assets to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and again through passing on the same cost to consumers through the PSA.
“Power consumers today struggle to keep afloat from the flood of high electricity bills – and yet here we have ERC lending its hand to a billion-peso abuse against consumers. The very institution mandated by law to serve consumers’ best interests has no business enabling power companies to leech off them,” said Gerry Arances, Convenor of the Power for People Coalition (P4P).
According to the complaint, the ERC committed grave abuse of discretion in allowing EERI to recover costs of the connection asset in its tariff despite being mandated by law to transfer ownership to NGCP through a sale.
This violation only compounds the many anti-consumer terms already outlined in the power supply agreement in question, the groups said.
“Meralco is already at the top of highest-charging private distribution utilities across the country because of its reliance on high-priced gas and coal. Adding 1,200 MW of gas power to this mix only makes matters worse for our pockets,” Arances commented.
“This is a contract that clearly does not have the well-being of consumers in mind,” said Atty. Aaron Pedrosa, Secretary-General of Sanlakas and counsel of the petitioners.
“Its approval drives up the share of power contracted by Meralco’s distribution arm with companies that it also owns – in violation of thresholds allowable under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to supposedly prevent uncompetitive behavior and, therefore, protect consumers from abuse through beneficial ownership by the likes of Meralco. We’re filing this case today in defense of the right of every consumer to least-cost electricity,” Pedrosa said.
According to the groups, skyrocketing power rates should be subjected to the same level of scrutiny that corruption among flood control projects are facing today.
“Nilulunod ang mga Pilipino sa baha ng mga tiwaling nangungurakot sa kaban ng bayan na para dapat sa flood control; nilulunod din tayo buwan-buwan sa mahal na bill ng Meralco. Kung paano kumayod ang ordinaryong manggagawa para makabayad sa kuryente at lahat ng iba pa niyang gastusin, ganoon din dapat kumayod ang ERC at iba pang ahensya ng pamahalaan sa pagtatanggol sa karapatan niya sa murang kuryente,” said Luke Espiritu, President of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP).
“Hindi aksidente ang mga ganitong klase ng pandaraya. Dapat managot ang mga Discaya sa sektor ng kuryente na may kagagawan dito,” Espiritu said.
