Kuryente Kong Mahal

Kuryente Kong Mahal (Full) - Part 1
Kuryente Kong Mahal (Full) - Part 2

TEN YEARS since the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), its promise of affordable and accessible electricity to all through privatization and a leveled playing field in the industry has turned into its complete opposite.

Today, the Philippines suffers from the highest residential and industrial power rates in Asia (even higher than Japan), to the detriment of millions of Filipino consumers as well as our industries.

In contrast to our electricity-starved citizenry and economy, five super-rich families have become much, much richer, having cornered the fruits of EPIRA privatization which in practice has dropped all pretensions of opening up the electric power industry to as many competitive players as possible.

Moreover, in accordance with EPIRA, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) was set up to privatize NPC power plants and settle its debts. But as of 2010, NPC debts stood at $15.8 billion or P679.4 billion (P43: US$ 1, 2010 exchange rate), registering a small reduction, despite repeated power rate increases and power adjustments all shouldered by consumers, and the sale of more than 90 percent of NPC assets.

Against all facts and figures indicating the damaging effect of privatization under EPIRA on our consumers and the national economy, large vested interests and their allies in government are still hell-bent on privatizing the rural electric cooperatives. This remaining social sector or non-profit, non-state sector of the electric power industry has the mandate to electrify most of our provinces, particularly during the Marcos regime. Despite the traditional politics and management and financial troubles of a number of these cooperatives, many of them can claim success.

Ten years of a failed privatization scheme under EPIRA should convince the Philippine government, especially Congress, to overhaul it. Our people need and deserve a new electric power reform law that will genuinely provide affordable, accessible, and clean electricity to all. They need and deserve an electric power industry where private participation can have a place, but where the State and the public/social sector dominate to secure public welfare, and guarantee a national development that is based on equitable growth, sustainability and gender equality.☮

Video produced by the Freedom from Debt Coalition

Relevant Papers:
10 Reasons Why Electricity Bills Are High
A Dozen Ways To Reduce Electricity Rates