Clueless

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The inquiry into the controversial power rate hike by the Manila Electric Co. has revealed that energy officials, including Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla and Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Zenaida Ducut are clueless on why power rates shot up to unprecedented levels in November and December.

When grilled by the energy committee of the House of Representatives on why power rates shot up, they simply told the committee that their separate investigations that have already taken more than a month are still ongoing.

Although the Energy secretary was unable to explain why and how rates skyrocketed, he managed to say that there was still no sufficient basis to suspect collusion among the Wholesale Energy Spot Market traders during that suspicious period. On the other hand, the ERC head submitted an “initial report” on her agency’s inquiry with the caveat: “what we have are preliminary findings and no conclusions yet.”

If there is one thing good that has come from this Meralco power rate fiasco, it has exposed the inutility of the energy officials who are supposed to serve and protect the best interests of the Filipino people and how they are allowing the big corporations to take advantage of their almost complete control over commodities such as electricity, or in the case of Negrenses: fuel; to manipulate prices any way they see fit.

This pattern of indifference by the energy officials on matters that they should be responsible to the Filipino people for strengthens the suspicion that the DOE is either under the thumb of these giant corporations, or the prevailing mindset at the agency is allowing them to run rings around it while the Filipino power or fuel consumer that will bear the brunt of their poorly regulated and arbitrary pricing schemes needlessly suffer.

If the Department of Energy is unable to protect the Filipino public from skyrocketing energy rates, who can we turn to? Will a change of leadership solve this problem or does our government need to create a separate agency to be our champion against cartelization and overpricing?*