Press Release
July 20, 2007

Jinggoy to GMA: "Thanks for echoing my call to amend EPIRA"

"FOR once, I could thank GMA if only because she echoed my calls to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA)."

This was stated by opposition stalwart Sen. Jinggoy Estrada yesterday after President Arroyo, in a Thursday speech at the Luzon urban beltway infrastructure conference at the Subic Bay International Airport in Zambales, said she would ask Congress to amend the EPIRA to promote open access and more competition in the power sector.

"Six years after its enactment, the promise of EPIRA is now popularly viewed as a broken one, with the never-ending spiraling cost of electricity," Estrada said as he noted reports that the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) would hike its electricity rates by P1 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) this month.

EPIRA, or Republic Act 9136, was passed and signed into law in 2001 and was then touted by the Arroyo administration as a step toward ending monopolies, encouraging entry of more industry players and deregulation of power generation and supply, which would all redound to lower rates and better services.

"Those were the grand promises of the Arroyo administration in pushing for the passage of the EPIRA. But nothing of those promises even came close to realization. On the contrary, what we have experienced were continuous electricity rate hikes and frequent power failures," Estrada said.

"But more than this grand pronouncement again by Mrs. Arroyo, she should certify as urgent my bill, Senate Bill No. 160, which seeks major revisions to the EPIRA, to ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability of the supply of electric power," he said.

"In fact, I'm even contemplating on pushing for the repeal of the entire law if the proposed revisions would not be effected," Estrada added.

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