Fight of the decade? Lopez-Meralco vs. Gloria Arroyo

May 7, 2008

There are too many problems facing the nation which Gloria Arroyo still has to confront and address, yet she zeroes in on wresting management control from the Lopez-Meralco bloc, and even makes it appear that the rising Meralco price is the biggest problem Filipinos face, going to the extent of even calling on the masses to go forth and fight alongside her on the petition of Meralco to the Energy Regulator Commission (ERC).

She, who hardly toes the line of transparency that the Filipino people have been calling for, even calls for transparency in Meralco.

But in the same breath, she insists that she is not fighting the Lopezes, and is merely doing this to ensure lower electricity rates for the Filipinos.

There is no question that the high electricity bills from Meralco has become a problem of many — whether in business or at home.

There is also no question that Meralco has been making a lot of money, posting a profit of some P20 billion. And there is, too, the question of the Meralco management’s reluctance to provide a major stockholder, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) with certain documents.

As admitted by board member Christian Monsod, Meralco cannot simply open its documents to every shareholder who number in the tens of thousands, and added that it is not advisable for Meralco to provide shareholders the papers they ask since some stockholders may have the conflict of interest — including GSIS.

That is hardly acceptable in an public corporation as it is, or should be, accountable to its stockholders — especially the major stockholders.

If Meralco is doing right, then there is really no reason for the management to keep away documents from a major stockholder that demands it.

Still, the question remains: Why is Gloria zeroing on Meralco when she certainly knows that the high electricity prices are hardly caused by Meralco alone? There is the Napocor that has not been following the Epira law, which mandates Napocor to lower its rates.

Besides, there are also other costs that helped bring about high power rates, such as the eVAT Gloria charges, plus several other charges, such as generation, distribution, transmission, plus of course the systems loss charges. Yet she says nothing about these extra charges that bring up the power cost.

The IPPs are also part of the problem, not to mention the very high oil prices.

The oil price hike is a big problem, yet neither Gloria nor her clueless Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes does anything about it as far as rising pump prices go. As admitted by Reyes himself, there is nothing the government can do to bring down the weekly increases in pump prices, as the industry has been regulated.

So why doesn’t Gloria demand transparency from these big oil firms, just as she and her aides demand transparency from Meralco? What’s poison for the goose should be poison for the gander. Fair is fair.

So why doesn’t she call on the masses, nay the Filipino people, who compose the LPG society, to fight the oil firms and lower the price of oil, as she does in the case of Meralco? Why doesn’t she apply the same standards? After all, LPG prices have zoomed, and a lot of poor Filipinos can’t afford the price of an LPG tank for cooking purposes, which is why many have already switched to charcoal cooking.

None of these is being mentioned by Gloria. Yet she has brought into play all her allies in Congress to put the pressure on Meralco.

Yet it is always Malacañang that claims congressional probes are a waste of time, and a forum for grandstanding. But this time, it wants the Senate anad the House to investigate. This is all to the good of electric consumers, but why isn’t this also being called upon by Gloria in the case of the oil companies, some of whom are said to be engaged in smuggling?

There’s more to this pressure on Meralco and a management change by Malacañang than meets the eye. It is more of a Gloria-Lopez fight and it is too evident not to see through her ploy.

Still, it will definitely be interesting to watch how the fight will end — whether the Lopezes retain control of Meralco or if the government, through the GSIS, takes over management control.

But it certainly looks like the Lopezes are willing to fight government — at least on the issue that will somehow be interrelated with the Lopez TV network.

The stockholders meeting will resolve the Meralco management change issue. But will Gloria’s fight with the Lopezes end after the stockholders meeting, or will more problems come the way of the Lopezes?

Time and action on both sides will tell.

Bookmark to: