Group protests planned power rate hike
Militant women s group abriela yesterday staged a picket at the amuning branch of the Manila Electric o. (Meralco) and in several communities to protest the P0.8 per kilowatt hour power rate increase for April and subse uent rate increases until uly.
he group also condemned the Energy egulatory ommission (E ) and the government for failing to protect consumers against the greed of big businesses in the power sector.
abriela secretary general oms alvador urged the public to have their bills stamped with the phrase “Paid under protest” to show their condemnation of the recent power rate hike and Meralco s threat of blackouts in Metro Manila in an apparent attempt to foil protests against soaring power rates in the country.
abriela also slammed the E s dillydallying in holding Meralco and other big players in the power industry accountable for irregularities in previous increases such as the P4.15 per kwh overpriced rate hike last ovember.
“ he E effectively functions only as protectors of power companies instead of the consumers. ince last year, the public has been clamoring for an investigation of the anomalous rate increases, but up until today no one has been held accountable and yet they approved another increase,” said alvador.
he group sought the unking of the Electric Power Industry eform Act (EPIA) of 2001 which allowed private monopoly of the power industry and acked up the cost of electricity in the country by 330 percent since coming into effect almost 13 years ago.
alvador said successive power rate hikes since the passing of the EPI A, which placed the Philippines first among countries in Asia with the most e pensive electricity, as well as recent e posure of price manipulations in the wholesale electricity spot market, are enough manifestations of the failure of the law to make electricity affordable to the public.
abriela urged the people to oin the “Lights off protest” on April 21 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. to show dismay over rising electricity costs due to the monopoly in the power industry and to hold the government accountable for neglecting its people.