Gov't, Meralco power load scheme hit

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Tuesday scored the government's Interruptible Load Program, describing the scheme as "the poor subsidizing the very rich."

The ILP is a power scheme by which  the Department of Energy will implement  with the Manila Electric Co. once the "red alert" level or status which indicates a power supply shortage is reached this summer season.

Under the ILP, large commercial and industrial corporations, including malls, will run their own generator sets to power up their energy needs for their air-conditioning, lighting and operations as a solution to the anticipated power shortage this summer. 

This will free-up power supply that Meralco can use to service the captive residential households and small enterprises within the power distributor's franchise area. 

Those ILP participants running their own generator sets – the most expensive power source – will then pass through their fuel and maintenance costs to the Meralco consumers.

"Powering up the malls through their own generators is not a cost incurred by Meralco that we, the household consumers, actually ended up using," Gerard Seno, executive vice president of Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, said.

He said that the scheme is tantamount to a direct subsidy from the mostly poor and middle-class customers of Meralco to the participating industries owned by affluent families in the country.

"We believe that in times of crisis, ALL must sacrifice and ALL must bear the burden. This means including the big businesses, the commercial and industrial sector, not just the poor hapless residential consumers," Seno added.

TUCP also questioned the ILP's legality as it has not even gone through the due process of a public hearing at the Energy Regulatory Commission.

"It is as if Meralco and DOE have not learned some lessons from the automatic rate increase last December, it is as if walang natutunan and here they go again implementing a scheme without consulting the public who again be made to shell out hard-earned money for power they are not even directly consuming. ERC created rules on ILP for Visayas and Mindanao. There are no rules for Luzon and yet Meralco is rushing this," Seno said.