ROXAS TO GOV'T: JUSTIFY POWER RATE HIKE

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas has asked the government to justify power rate increase recently that hit the Visayas region hardest, saying it would worsen the impact of the global financial crisis and cause more joblessness.

In separate letters to Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, National Power Corporation (Napocor) President Froilan Tampinco, Energy Regulatory Commissioner Chairperon Zenaida Cruz-Ducut and Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Ibazeta, Roxas asked them to cite the basis for the large increase in the power rates, especially in the Visayas grid which would get a P1.1460 per kilowatt hour hike.

Stressing that "the energy sector is one of the vital segments of our country's resource management," the senator said it is important that government "ensure transparent and reasonable prices of electricity in a regime of free and fair competition and full public accountability to protect the public interest."

The ERC approved last February a joint Napocor-PSALM application to collect an additional Php .4682 per kilowatt hour for Luzon, Php 1.1460 for Visayas and Php .7174 for Mindanao in their basic generation charges, generating vehement opposition from local officials and residents.

Napocor claimed the rate increase was needed to help it with its current financial difficulties brought about by high current costs of generating power and to increase its "Return of Rate Base" from 8% to 12%.

"It is apparent that the Visayas region has acquired the highest provisional rate increase among the three major regions. It bears stressing that the aforesaid increase will certainly be an additional burden to power consumers amidst the current global economic crisis," the Ilonggo senator said in his letters.

Roxas had earlier filed Senate Resolution No. 946 asking the Senate energy committee to look into the power rate increase.

He likewise said the investigation would look into the claims of the Federation of Electric Cooperatives in Eastern Visayas that Napocor and PSALM did not notify and inform the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, various electric cooperatives and local government units in the region of their joint application before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as mandated by the provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reforms Act (EPIRA) of 2001.