BECAUSE of all the noise and wrangling that are happening at the political front, some more important issues that have to do with our guts and consequently survival, were being relegated to the background.
Take for example the case of oil firms which for more than 10 weeks now have been raising prices of their fuel products and nothing was being done against it.
The last time I checked, the prices had already reached as high as P72 per liter for premium fuel.
As a result of these unabated oil hikes, prices of basic goods especially food and also services have skyrocketed which also meant higher inflation rate.
More burden
And while we were not looking, Meralco also increased its power rates for our November bills which could add more burden to millions of people, who are still reeling and can hardly stand up because of the pandemic-induced punishments.
Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco’s vice president and head of corporate communications, said that the power distributor’s overall rates rose, as expected, by P0.3256 per kilowatt-hour to P9.4630 per kwh from last month’s P9.1374 per kwh due to higher generation charge.
Simply put, the additional charges are equivalent to an increase of around P65 in the total bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kwh, P98 for 300 kwh, P130 for 400 kwh and P163 for 500 kwh.
Bad taste
Meralco’s decision to increase power rates leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
It deliberately refused and ignored the fact we are still in the middle of a very destructive pandemic and despite more relaxed quarantine restrictions, majority of subscribers are just starting to recover their bearings.
As expected, Zaldarriaga tried to deflect the blame on the increase from Meralco by explaining that it was a result of the Malampaya natural gas facility shutdown.
“The said maintenance shutdown resulted in higher costs of power from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs),” Zaldarriaga said.
Conscience
Whatever the reason, Meralco should have the conscience and decency to forgo the power hikes.
After all, the firm already made and is still raking billions of pesos in earnings to ensure its continued operations long after this pesky pandemic is gone.
Also, its huge earnings are enough to guarantee that the lavish lifestyles of its incorporators and owners would continue and last for several lifetimes.
P 5.615-B earnings
It’s worth noting that while most industries and companies were severely affected by the still ongoing pandemic forcing many of them to slow down or cease operations, Meralco was hardly dented by the contagion.
In fact, the power firm reported a 32.9% increase in its net income in the second quarter of this year amounting to P 5.615 billion, which was higher than the P4.225 billion earnings year-on-year.
It’s clear therefore that the firm could have done great service to the country and its people had it opted to forgo the increase and instead implemented it in some other time in the future.
But as it is, Meralco just like other corporate giants always put premium on earnings and profits over their social duties and responsibilities.
Malampaya
Speaking of Malampaya, its sale to Dennis Uy –led Udenna consortium should not have been allowed in the first place.
It was clearly disadvantageous to the government because various studies indicated that we stood to lose hundreds of billions of pesos from the deal, which we could have used to spur economic activities and fund the fight against the pandemic.
Several business groups have also expressed opposition to the deal led by the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club.
In a statement, they urged the Senate and other concerned agencies and groups to fully explore why the government did not exercise its right of first refusal over Chevron’s and Shell’s shares in Malampaya.
Indeed, there are myriad issues surrounding the questionable Malampaya deal but one thing is certain, it appears that people in the power and oil industries have no qualms in bleeding this country dry.
Insensitive and merciless
Yet, our politicians seem oblivious of all these unwelcome developments and are going ahead with their merry ways, throwing mud at each other and engaging in petty and useless propaganda, while promising heaven and earth to the voters.
The people are already tired and sick of their antics and were not listening anymore to their promises which they know were not meant to be fulfilled.
The public also knows that these politicians, and their cohorts at power and oil industries have one thing in common, they are all simply insensitive and merciless.