Sending the wrong signal

We have a law that penalizes pilferage, or stealing electricity, but the practice largely remains unchecked.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) told the Senate recently that it has secured 21 convictions in electricity pilferage cases since 2022, and that only five percent of arrests involving pilferage and tampering of electricity have resulted in convictions since then.

This drew the ire of Sen. Erwin Tulfo during a Senate energy panel hearing on system loss as he questioned what happened to the other arrested individuals.

During the hearing, the PNP presented data showing it has recorded 548 cases of violations of Republic Act 7832, or the Anti-Electricity Transmission Lines Materials Pilferage Act, since 2022. Of the 548 cases, 469 individuals were arrested, but only 21 were convicted.

Tulfo said it would be hard to blame electric companies for collecting system loss charges from consumers, as they cannot recover those losses given the lack of punishment.

The senator also chided the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for failing to submit data on cases of electric pilferage, reminding them to ensure that they would be able to show figures on the apprehensions they made in the next hearing.

The Senate is currently considering measures to prohibit electricity distribution companies from recovering system losses from consumers, including non-technical losses such as electricity theft.

Meanwhile, the PNP has mobilized its nationwide commanders to build airtight cases against electricity thieves and facility pilferers to guarantee higher conviction rates in court.

Leniency toward pilferage is not compassion. It is a bill sent to someone poor. Every peso of stolen electricity is recovered somehow from another household that unwittingly pays for someone else’s crime.

The instinct to go easy on electricity thieves is understandable. In neighborhoods where the monthly electric bill competes with food, an illegal connection can look less like a crime. Prosecuting someone poor who steals electricity feels like prosecuting poverty.

But stolen electricity is not free electricity. A power company generates it, transmits it to an electric distribution utility or electric cooperative, and then distributes it to a customer who pays for electricity, part of which was stolen. But the law allows distribution utilities and electric cooperatives to collect this stolen electricity as system loss, which is part of everyone’s electricity bill.

System loss charges in electricity bills have two components: technical losses, which are unavoidable physical energy losses that occur when electricity travels through transmission lines, distribution wires, substations and transformers; and non-technical losses, or avoidable losses caused by electricity theft, illegal connections,and meter tampering, among others.

Under the law, utilities may recover system losses from consumers up to 14 percent for rural electric cooperatives and 9.5 percent for private electric utilities such as the Manila Electric Company.

Bills are currently pending in both the Senate and the House of Representatives that propose completely prohibiting, or at least limiting, passing on non-technical system losses to consumers.

Unfortunately, these proposals fail to address the root cause of non-technical system losses: the failure of our government’s law enforcement agencies to stop electricity pilferage and other forms of electricity theft.

This sends the wrong signal that electricity theft is excusable since those engaged in the distribution business can just absorb these losses instead of passing them on to consumers.

But not all these electricity distributors are big businesses. Many of them are barely surviving and to remove from them the ability to charge customers for it would be catastrophic. If they close shop, then what would happen to their consumers? Businesses depend on electricity. Hospitals need electricity to provide health care to their patients. Schools and their students depend on electricity. The effect on the economy would be disastrous.

The Department of Energy has launched Brigada Kontra jumper, asking ordinary people to report illegal connections, tampered meters and dangerous wiring through the eGovPH app. That is the state admitting that it cannot do the job.

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