Akbayan solons, other groups ask DOJ to probe Meralco rate hike

Several groups led by Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello on Monday formally asked the Department of Justice to investigate the impending P4.15 per kilowatt-hour rate increase by Meralco, the first part of which is set to take effect this month.
 

In a letter-complaint addressed to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and signed by Bello and another Akbayan congressman Ibarra Gutierrez III, the groups said the DOJ as the country's "competition authority" should investigate Meralco and other power plants in the country for possible violations of laws prohibiting cartelization, monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade as defined in competition laws.
 

The groups claimed Meralco and the Energy Regulatory Commission, which approved the price hike last December 9, met and green-lighted the increase without any public hearing or investigation for possible market abuse. The groups claimed the hike would be "the highest in history."
 

"The increase in electricity costs added to the economic burden of end-users and consumers who at a time when the whole nation is reeling from the brunt of Typhoon Yolanda and in anxious anticipation of the holiday season, face increases in prices of basic commodities like liquefied petroleum gas and Metro Rail Transit fares," the groups said.

In response to the letter, De Lima on Monday said the DOJ Office for Competition already started looking into the matter and would come up with a report with recommendations by January next year.

It would be "inevitable" to invite representatives from the power firms to let them explain, she told reporters.

According to the group, the DOJ should assess the price increase and the tight supply and high concentration among few players in electricity generation in the Philippines.
 

"Now more than ever is the time to call on the government and all its regulatory and investigating agencies to examine the spike in electricity rates," the groups said.

Rights of consumers
 

They also said DOJ's investigation would not only protect the rights of power consumers but also ensure that suppliers and generating companies of electricity "would not use trade and market rules to oppress and impose unfair prices on the public."
 

Joining the lawmakers in the letter-complaint were officials from the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Center for Power Issues and Initiatives, and Partido Manggagawa-Nagkaisa Labor Coalition.
 

Meralco had earlier announced a P4.15 per kilowatt-hour increase in its electricity rates due to the scheduled shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas platform that underwent maintenance from November 10 to December 11.
 

Meralco claimed it was forced to buy expensive electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market during the scheduled Malampaya shutdown just to meet the 2,700-megawatt deficit of the electricity peak load demand of Luzon.
 

The P4.15-increase will be divided into three tranches consisting of a P2 raise in December, P1 in February, and P0.44 in March, along with the corresponding taxes and service charges.
 

But the groups said Meralco's rate hike due to the Malampaya shut down was much higher—three times more—than the expected increase when other power plants went on a simultaneous and unscheduled shutdown during the same period. 
 

The complaining groups said Meralco's decision to buy expensive electricity from WESM was "information that point to a contrived scenario of extreme short-term shortage of electricity for the purpose of raising the price of electricity beyond what it would cost to generate it."
 

Earlier, another party-list lawmaker, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, had said his group was already mulling to secure a temporary restraining order against the Meralco hike from a regional trial court (RTC). —Mark Merueñas/KG/VS, GMA News