MANILA, Philippines - The suggestion by foreign businessmen that government should not rescind onerous power contracts was branded Monday as "absurd" and a "thinly-veiled blackmail" by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
The GSIS - which has been pushing for annulment of the "sweetheart deal" between Manila Electric Company and the IPP of the Lopez family called First Gas - also described the statement of the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) as "unsolicited parachute assessment and prescription" for the Philippines.
"For the JFC to tell Filipinos to allow ourselves to be robbed blind through sweetheart deals is absurd. We have enough nationalism and self-respect to say enough is enough,"GSIS chief legal counsel and spokesperson Estrella Elamparo said.
She also said that the JFC statement that foreign investors will be turned off by the review and cancellation of contracts, even if they are anomalous, is a "thinly-veiled blackmail."
According to Elamparo the real issue and the real turnoff for foreign investors is the exorbitant cost of electricity sold by Meralco to its captive market, which includes a big chunk of commercial and business users.
Moreover, Elamparo stressed that businesses want to break their forced dependency on Meralco, adding that many are supporting the provision of alternative power sources within special economic zones.
"I don't know where this group is coming from because the clamor of foreign investors is for power rates to go down. How will the cost of electricity go down if we will allow Meralco to take advantage of every loophole in our laws so it can keep on overcharging us?" she said.
At the same time, Elamparo pointed out that some foreigners, especially those with vested interests, have the habit of going into a country for just a while and then sounding off like they know the all of its problems.
"They parachute into a country and throw their weight around," she said. The term "parachute reporting" gained popularity in the 1980s.
Elamparo also reiterated that the GSIS fully supports efforts by both the Senate and the House of Representatives to amend the EPIRA Law, especially to remove the "take-or-pay provisions" being used by the Lopez IPPs to get payment from Meralco for undelivered power.
"Meralco charged us P13 billion in 2001 for just over P3 billion worth of power produced by First Gas. That's highway robbery which both Meralco and First Gas admitted to before Congress last week," she said.
In a statement, the GSIS said that the Lopezes had lost any claim to moral ascendancy in their corporate governance when they passed off to Meralco customers the cost of electricity used by the company, when they illegally hiked power rates in at least two instances, and when they obstinately refused to refund the P21.4 billion in meter and bill deposits of consumers.
The claim of First Gas officials that it already had full 1,000 megawatt capacity when it was contracted by Meralco to provide that much electricity was preposterous, the state pension fund said.
Earlier, Camarines Sur Luis Villafuerte said First Gas had only 300 megawatt capacity at the time.
"If First Gen really had 1,000 megawatt capacity as it claimed, how come Meralco had to buy from Napocor what First Gas' Sta. Rita plant cannot provide?" the GSIS pointed out.
"They blamed alleged transmission line deficiencies to shift the blame, but Meralco and First Gas surely knew about the state of the said transmission lines when they sealed that contract."
"This fact makes the Meralco-First Gas deal more odious because it shows collusion to overcharge the public while laying the blame elsewhere." - GMANews.TV