Chiz presses for gov’t control over power assets; files bill to amend EPIRA

By Office of Senator Chiz Escudero
March 28, 2014

PASAY CITY – Senator Chiz Escudero has filed a bill amending the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to bolster government control over all existing and future assets of the National Power Corporation (Napocor)) in order to temper the profit-oriented practices in the sector.

Escudero, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, put forward Senate Bill No. 2167 (S.B. 2167) to amend Section 47 of Republic Act No. 9136 or the EPIRA law, and place all remaining assets of Napocor under government.

His proposal effectively repeals the provision which states that assets “shall be sold in an open and transparent manner through public bidding, and the same shall apply to the disposition of independent power producers (IPP) contracts.”

Escudero, who voted against EPIRA when he was still in Congress, said the law failed to deliver its promise to solve the country’s perennial energy woes.

“The EPIRA became a misnomer to its purpose. Instead of reforming the business environment to better service and improve delivery of supply and lower rates to consumers as it was hoped then, it has caused the government to lose control of the power industry,” Escudero lamented, as he noted that the Philippines has one of the highest power rates in Asia.

Such situation, he added, “enabled private businesses to raise power rates with impunity.”

S.B. 2167 also seeks to exclude the Agus and Pulangi complexes in Mindanao from privatization since these hydropower plants supply half of the energy demands in Mindanao.

“We should endeavor to rehabilitate these two resources in order to stabilize the market situation in Mindanao as hydropower is still the cheapest. Monopoly in Mindanao will also be cut,” Escudero pointed out.

According to Escudero, all existing and future power assets, especially from hydro resources, must be retained, rehabilitated, maintained and developed.

The bill provides that in case of transfer of possession, control, operation or privatization of multi-purpose hydropower facilities, the control and power of the government must always be empowered to direct water usage in all cases it may deem appropriate to satisfy all water requirements imbued with public interest.

Escudero’s bill also presses for the development of geothermal resources in the country and construction of new geothermal plants and that steamfield assets and generating plants of each existing geothermal complex should not be privatized.