GMA's "war" vs. MERALCO

[chua_riwap]

yun lola ni wifey ganun din. delayed na nga, nagmimintis pa tapos ty na lang yun mga months na di narecieve yun pension. mas malaki pa gastos sa pagpapabalik-balik sa head office ng gsis.

Ayan.....so marami na pala talaga apektado. Pero di pa pumuputok sa media yan. Nag-umpisa daw itong problema ng father ko before sumingaw itong "rice crisis". Baka pondo ng GSIS ang ginamit pang-import ng bigas.

[boybi]

Honestly. I CANNOT understand why in the hell is electricity in Metro Manila more EXPENSIVE than the provinces? Simple economics lang naman eh. Pag madami ang consumers, a lot can share the cost of transmission and energy loss. Plus, the electric distributor (like Meralco) can actually bargain for the cost of electricity because of the bulk that they get! Bad trip talaga! Dito sa Manila, I cannot use my aircon in my room for fear of receiving an outrageously expensive electric bill but when I'm in Mindanao or Cebu, I only turn of the aircon when I'm not in the room! BAD TRIP!!! ARGHHH!!! :fire:

FYI, electricity rates here in Tarlac City is higher than in Metro Manila.

[chua_riwap]

FYI, electricity rates here in Tarlac City is higher than in Metro Manila.

Yep agree. Taga Tarlac (Camiling) din po ako. Mas mahal nga.

[Monseratto]

So the Lopezes bought something they didn't use, passed it on to Meralco, who then passes it to us clueless consumer...MAGALING!

Probe billion-peso Meralco deals--GSIS

STEPPING UP THE ONGOING WAR between the Government Service Insurance System and the Manila Electric Co., a GSIS official on Saturday said Congress should look into the possibly disadvantageous multimillion-dollar deals entered into by the Lopez group-led Meralco and its subsidiaries.

Independent power producers owned by the Lopez group owed some $148 million to Shell and other firms for the purchase of natural gas from the Malampaya offshore gas production platform a few years ago, said Estrella Elamparo, the GSIS senior vice president for legal affairs.

“Under the settlement agreement, that amount will be passed on to Meralco. Meralco in turn will pass that amount on to consumers,” Elamparo told a Sulo Hotel press forum Saturday.

“I’m not sure if they have started charging this,” she said.

The Lopez-owned IPPs, collectively grouped under First Gas Power Corp., placed the order for Malampaya natural gas in gas sale and purchase agreements with Shell Phil. Exploration BV, Shell Phil. LLC, Texaco Phil. and PNOC Exploration Corp., Elamparo said.

Passed on to consumers?

While it failed to consume the gas from 2002 to 2004, First Gas had to pay the four companies for its purchase order. It was originally billed about $231 million for the unconsumed gas, but this was lowered to $148 million, she said.

First Gas billed Meralco the same amount in October 2005 under the terms of their power purchase agreement, an amount “which could be passed on to consumers,” Elamparo said, citing Meralco’s audited financial statements for 2007.

First Gas operates the 1,000-megawatt Santa Rita and 500-megawatt San Lorenzo gas-fired power plants in Batangas. Shell Phil. Exploration BV is the service contract operator of the Malampaya natural gas project.

More contracts

At the same Sulo forum yesterday, Elamparo said another P140 billion worth of contracts needed to be looked into, involving contracts entered into by Meralco and its sister companies, which include Benpres Holdings, Rockwell and Miascor.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...co-deals--GSIS

[Zeus]

OT

Ok din itong si Winston Garcia. Ano'ng portion ng GSIS fund ang gagamitin nyang pambili ng Meralco? Ang father ko po, retired gov't employee (teacher). Yun pong pension nya coming from GSIS, na kakarampot, ilan buwan na pong delayed! Wala na siyang natatanggap! Ang haba raw ng pila ng mga pensioners na nagri-reklamo. Marami na pala silang di nakakatanggap ng pension.

Ewan ko lang kung meron din pong relative kayo na ganito rin ang dinaranas sa pension nila from GSIS.

Di ba si Garcia rin ang gumamit ng GSIS fund sa pagbili ng isang painting worth millions? para daw ma enjoy ng mga Filipinos? tapos pension pambayad sa mga gov't employees nadedelayed?

[shadow]

So the Lopezes bought something they didn't use, passed it on to Meralco, who then passes it to us clueless consumer...MAGALING!





http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...co-deals--GSIS

works of malacanan spin doctors....first GSIS is part of Meralco's board, bakit hinde nila kinontra dati before Meralco purchased all of these "illegal" whatever...

[Monseratto]

Linalabas lang ng Malacanang yung baho ng kanilang kalaban. Everyone know the Lopezes are not exactly saints as their own spindoctors(ABS-CBN) are making the public otherwise believe. Do you think that the charitable foundations of the Lopezes really give out their own money??? And who gets the credit??? Buti nga ganito ginagawa ni GMA sa Lopezes, does anyone remember what CONVICTED EX-pres.Erap did to the Gokongwei's Manila Times and Inquirer when they pissed him off? And guess who is now one of CONVICTED EX-president Erap's biggest supporters?

[Bogeyman]

Do you think that the charitable foundations of the Lopezes really give out their own money??? And who gets the credit???

Excuse me, but I feel that I have to correct this severely misguided assertion.

Nobody said that the Lopez charities use Lopez money. In fact, everyone can see that these charities, like other similar endeavors, rely heavily on donations in cash and in kind, whether from private individuals or corporate entities. How else would you explain the ubiquitous Bantay Bata cans on convenience stores, shopping malls, retail outlets, etc., or the call to public action every time a major calamity strikes and the affected people are in need of aid?

Who gets the credit? The victims thank the charities (understandably so), and the charities in turn thank those who matter -- the donors themselves. I know firsthand that there are so many of these donors, there's often not enough airtime to acknowledge them one by one.

My wife and I have also experienced several times how lacking in monetary resources these charities really are, which is why text messages claiming cash prizes being given out by the ABS-CBN Foundation are obviously outright SCAMS.

[Monseratto]

Let's see if this thing will really go all the way...

Meralco breakup eyed

MANILA, Philippines—Government Service Insurance System Chair Winston Garcia plans not only to buy out the Lopez family and other shareholders in Manila Electric Co. but to break up as well the firm’s concession to promote efficiency and transparency.

The GSIS president and general manager said in a phone interview Sunday that he would cut up the P75-billion power distribution company the same way the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) franchise area was divided after it was privatized in 1997.

“We are very much interested, we think Meralco is a good investment,” Garcia said. “My plan is to take full control of Meralco and split it up into two or more sub-franchises. This worked very well in the MWSS privatization.”

Elpi Cuna, Meralco vice president for corporate communication, doubted the company’s 50-year franchise could be subdivided. “It’s a total package and the way it is worded, you have to go back to Congress to get permission,” said Cuna, speaking for Meralco, not for the Lopez family.

Garcia spoke to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the eve of the first hearing called by the Joint Congressional Power Commission chaired by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, a son of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Santiago said the panel would look into Meralco’s high electricity rates, but critics said the moves against the company were prompted by the critical stand against the Arroyo administration taken by the Lopez-owned radio-television network ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

On Thursday, First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC) chair Oscar Lopez, weary of Garcia’s tirades against his family’s management of Meralco, said he was “sick and tired of this business” and that the government could buy out his group.

The Lopezes have yet to prove their mettle in a competitive field, Garcia said. “Just look at what happened to them in the water business, they lost money while the other concessioner (the Ayala-led Manila Water) on the other side is very profitable. I don’t agree that they are the best people to run Meralco.”

The Lopezes, through Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI), won the right to operate the west zone of MWSS for 25 years in 1997 in what was billed as the richest water privatization in the world.

Due to heavy losses and mounting debts, the Lopezes were forced out of the concession 10 years ago, with D.M. Consunji Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. taking over following a debt-capital exchange with the government.

Garcia said having two or more operators in the Meralco franchise area, rather than just one, would ensure more transparency in the operation of a distribution firm.

“It would be hard to justify if one of the sub-franchisees would be charging a higher rate than its neighbors. Having competition would ensure that consumers would get a fair rate in their electricity bills,” he said.

Garcia has called for a management shakedown in Meralco to end what he described as “sweetheart deals” with Lopez-owned power firms and questionable charges being slapped on consumers. “Splitting it up will cure a lot of ills in the company,” he said.

Garcia said he was also surprised by Lopez’s declaration to get out of the business his family had controlled since its American owners pulled out in 1968. The family had offered to buy out the government last year, he said.

The Lopezes lost the company during the martial law years but regained it after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

Garcia claimed that the Lopezes only held less than 20 percent of Meralco, noting that its supposed control on a total of 33 percent of the utility’s stock included the stakes of Union Fenoza (9 percent) and Meralco Pension Fund (9 percent).

In contrast, Garcia said the GSIS and other government financial institutions had a combined 35-percent share.

“I am just trying to correct what I believe is an unfair situation. How can a family with less than a quarter of the company’s stake have control of the company? I still cannot understand this,” he said. Garcia joined the Meralco board only last month.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...o-breakup-eyed

[Monseratto]

More dirt...


http://www.gmanews.tv/story/94632/Me...-deal-says-OSG

Meralco can’t charge customers under onerous deal, says OSG

MANILA, Philippines - Government lawyers want regulators to void a P20-billion settlement that allows Lopez-owned Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to charge customers the amount it is supposed to pay the government for failing to honor a 10-year power supply contract.

In a motion for intervention filed before the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Office of the Solicitor General said the deal had not passed legal review.

It also said the four-year-old settlement is disadvantageous to the government and unfair to consumers, adding to the anti-Meralco sentiment that has been haunting the utility for past week.

No less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has hit the Lopez family for high power rates, a move seen by critics as political maneuvering.

"It is incumbent upon [the Solicitor General] to present to the court what she considers shall legally uphold the best interest of the government although it may run counter to a client’s position," Solicitor General Agnes VST Devanadera said in a motion dated May 8.

She said the settlement, which stemmed from Meralco’s revocation of its 10-year power supply contract with state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) a year earlier in 2003, is void since it had not passed through her office.

Meralco terminated the contract since it could get the power from independent power producers at cheaper rates under a restructured power sector.

Under the 2003 deal, Meralco will pay Napocor P27.515 billion for failing to buy the electricity supply of about 60,000 gigawatt-hours between 2002 and 2004.

On the other hand, Napocor will pay Meralco P7.5 billion for its failure to adequately provide transmission lines to privately owned power plants that also supply electricity to the Lopez company.

Once approved by the ERC, the state firm will have to pay the net amount of P20 billion over five to six years. The deal also allows Meralco to charge customers the amount.

Ms. Devanadera said the Napocor charter mandates it to submit all pleadings and compromise agreements to the Solicitor General for review.

Had it known about it, government attorneys would have struck down the provisions for being disadvantageous to both the government and consumers, she pointed out.

"The required approvals were never sought by Napocor," the Solicitor General said, adding that when Napocor had settled the issue, it effectively amended the original contract for electricity supply.

As a result, Napocor’s original claim against Meralco for the contracted but unconsumed energy was cut by around P7.465 billion, Ms. Devanadera said. The Lopez firm should pay the original contracted price, she added.

She also noted that the deal allows Meralco to pass the P20 billion cost to its customers.

Ms. Devanadera said the "pass-on" provision violates state policy. "The same should be struck down for being against public interest and public policy," she said.

But a Meralco official hit the intervention for its timing and allegedly unfair judgment.

In a teleconference on Friday night, Meralco Vice-President Ivanna G. de la Peña defended the settlement.

She said Napocor had never waived its rights because "the [contracted but unused power] happened because of the Asian financial crisis. The capacities were also underutilized."

During the 1997-1998 currency crisis, demand for power slid, and even Napocor could not generate power at the time, she pointed out. The settlement, she added, was a "recognition of what is fair and reasonable."

She also likened the deal to a "take-or-pay" contract. Since the plants were already generating power, the contractor must pay for fixed costs, including the buildings and turbines. The costs will then have to be shouldered by consumers served by the contractor or distributor. Ms. de la Peña also claimed the P20 billion could be reduced to P14.3 billion since the actual volume purchased by Meralco from Napocor had been higher than the baseline quantities specified in the settlement.

A Meralco source claimed the amount could go down further to around P8 billion because of excess purchases in the first few years of the supply contract.

The source also questioned the timing of the Solicitor General’s intervention, an offshoot of the request made by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (Nasecore), a long-time detractor.

The Solicitor General’s position followed a string of anti-Meralco sentiment started by the President and Winston Garcia, president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

The GSIS, which owns a fourth of Meralco, has called for a management revamp to compel it to lower rates. Mr. Garcia has also threatened to file large-scale estafa charges against the firm’s management. — Ira P. Pedrasa, BusinessWorld