Massive brownout threatens May 13 elections, TUCP sees blackmail

By TUCP
May 9, 2013

QUEZON CITY – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said that the massive brownout in the Meralco franchise area the other day threatens the forthcoming elections and were a precursor of an imminent supply deficiency in the Luzon.

“We have long warned that when government surrender its control of power to the private sector that they will stage-manage and scaremonger consumers to accept the need for higher prices in exchange for 24/7 power,” said Gerard Seno, TUCP general secretary.

“TUCP notes with disbelief that 24 hours after the large scale brownouts, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla still cannot pinpoint whether the responsibilities lies with the National grid Corporation or the six power plants. The entire country and the sanctity of an election process are left to the mercy of socially unaccountable and financially acquisitive power players,” said TUCP Partylist Rep. Raymond Mendoza.

“Equally alarming, the Energy secretary is waiting for the 6 power producers in the affected grid to submit their logbooks of operations to the National Grid Corporation, for the latter to determine the cause of the brownout. Let me remind the DOE Secretary that the National Grid Corporation is co-owned by the Chinese government’s National Grid of China. The event yesterday is rife with national security concerns. Either we are hostaged to a cartel or a foreign government,” Mendoza stressed.

The TUCP has argued that it is time to amend the EPIRA and bring back the regulatory powers to the government.

“It is time to put back regulatory powers to government to ensure that power producers mandatorily reinvest in additional power capacity to meet projected future demand. The decision to put up additional capacity cannot be left to the independent private sector. What the independent power sector will do is wait until a deficit appears, so that they can immediately suggest the most expensive solutions to plug the gap – 15 pesos per Kwh power barge or even worse the generator sets for Mindanao which generate power at 17 pesos per kWh,” Seno added.