Bayan Muna on Power Reform Bill:
Junk this Shotgun Piece of Legislation!
Party-list contender
Bayan Muna on May 25 urged Congress to junk the proposed power reform
bill which the group called a "shotgun piece of legislation."
In a statement,
Bayan Muna said the government must stop pushing this anti-people
and pro-monopoly legislative measure and focus more on concrete reforms
beneficial to poor folks.
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo has instructed both houses of Congress to fast track
the approval of the power reform bill which seeks to sell the state-owned
Napocor to private groups. The Senate and House of Representatives
will hold a special session on May 28-31 to ratify the power bill
and other legislative agenda of the government.
Bayan Muna said
the plan to privatize Napocor will not resolve the crisis-ridden power
industry. On the contrary, the government will just repeat the same
sad experiences the people had when the Ramos administration placed
the MWSS in the hands of corporate interests.
The party-list
group said the bill authorizes the government to sell Napocor at a
bargain price of $4.5 billion to offset its current liability of $6.7
billion. It added that the $2.2 billion net loss will be charged to
taxpayers and local consumers which it described as "robbery in broad
daylight."
"The government
surrenders Napocor which was established out of taxpayers money to
all-time greedy corporate powers in the industry. Worse, the people
will be forced to pay Napocor’s debt to foreign creditors," the group
added.
"The government
must first assess what happened to MWSS when it decided to privatize
the water company several years ago. The disaster of the MWSS must
convince the government to shut off its plan to stake Napocor at the
expense of taxpayers and local consumers," said Satur Ocampo, Bayan
Muna president.
Ocampo said the
privatization of MWSS did not improve the water service system in
the country. "The people were taken hostage by poor service and rising
cost of water supply in the country. The privatization of Napocor
will just repeat the same tragedy," he added. Bayan Muna belied all
claims by proponents of the bill that the privatization of Napocor
will reduce manufacturing cost by 30 percent. It said power monopolies
do not exist for service, but for huge profits.
"The new owners
will go for the speedy recovery of invested capital by increasing
the cost of electricity," the group explained.
Bayan Muna also
raised grave concern on the case of 10,000 state workers who will
be displaced once the new owners take over the state-run power corporation.
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Bayan Muna was the top winner in last month's party-list election.
