TUCP to gather labor groups amid current 'power' situation

MANILA, Philippines - Alarmed by the current power situation in some parts of the country following the onslaught of Typhoon "Glenda," the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said Monday that it will meet with various business and labor groups this week to draw up measures to address the problem.

TUCP executive director Louie Corral said the Aquino administration has yet to come up with solution to the current energy situation.

Several provinces and areas in Metro Manila have been experiencing power outages after the typhoon crossed Luzon last week.

“TUCP, other labor groups, consumer and business organizations will meet on Wednesday with the aim of figuring out a recommendation to the government on how to minimize the impact of a full-blown power crisis precluded by prolonged rotational brownouts currently prevailing in many key areas Luzon and in Mindanao," Corral said.

He added: "TUCP wants the government to be prepared when the ‘perfect storm,’ caused by lack of power policy, hits the country because it’s the workers who’ll be whipped hard when the storm comes."

The group said that with one of the highest electricity rates in the world, the country remains unattractive to new investments that create quality jobs resulting to a static unemployment of 3.046 million in April 2013 to 2.924 million in April 2014 while underemployed are 11.057 million and 11.501 million covering the same period.

With the rotational brownouts in the equation, the TUCP also fears many jobs might be retrenched with companies affected by inadequate power supply.

The TUCP and its labor coalition called Nagkaisa has recommended twice to President Benigno Aquino III during the previous Labor day dialogue since 2013 the creation of a multi-agency, multi-sectoral presidential task force headed by him and composed of the economic and infrastructure clusters of the cabinet, business chambers, labor, consumer and power industry players.

The aim of the task force is to address the insufficiency of power and the need to determine affordability and competitiveness of power rates in the country.

Based on the recommendation, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla last May issued an order creating a study group under the DOE.

The TUCP and the Nagkaisa, however, refused to participate saying that they were asking for a presidential task force, not a study group.

Before the onset of rotational brownouts in Metro Manila, Corral said the TUCP urged Petilla to declare a national emergency on power "so that collectively we come up with the right solutions."

“The fate of all industry roadmaps particularly the employment targets is dependent on how we address the power crisis right now. We need a truthful picture of our future power supply so that we can come up with clear strategies and coping mechanisms and avert companies shutting down and retrenchments of workers," Corral said.

The TUCP is recommending that the government temporarily return to the power generation business until there is sufficient supply to restore business confidence, a return to tariff-setting based on 12 percent cap return-on-rate-base (RORB) to bring down the electricity prices to make the country reghionally competitive.

The group also suggests the suspension of Wholesale Electricity Spot Market in favor of bilateral contracting between generators and distributors overseen through a public auction by DOE and Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure true costs and not speculative and “gaming” costs.