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Tuesday, 11 March 2008 11:01 |
 Beginning 2008, FDC’s advocacy on the privatization of Philippine power industry will assume a broader perspective being an integral part of the advocacy program to oppose and resist privatization of essential services and commons.
In the previous three-year program, FDC’s campaign on the power industry was able to:
- Register protest against unjust power rates increases;
- Raised the ante of struggle against power rates increases by utilizing higher forms of action with wider mass participation, i.e. the National Day of Protest;
- Formed a new consumer movement and mobilized new networks through the formation of EmPOWER Consumers;
- Pushed government to respond to FDC’s demand regarding disclosure of documents pertaining to the renegotiation of IPP contracts;
- Linked up the power rates issue with the IPP contracts and the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA);
- Exposed anomalies in the process of EPIRA implementation like the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) “price manipulation,” the controversial deal in the sale of generation plants (YNN-Masinloc) and the recent bidding of National Transmission Corporation (Transco) as part of the process of the privatization program; and,
- Gathered different groups, member organization and individuals in the “FDC National Power Consultation-Workshop” in order to review and consolidate positions towards the process of developing an alternative agenda in the power industry.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 March 2008 04:35 |
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Tuesday, 11 March 2008 11:00 |
 When FDC took on campaigning against water privatization in 1997, the Coalition has since then counter-argued the government’s relentless drive to further privatize water services and all other utilities, and campaigned for the human right to water. The Coalition braved the propaganda of the two concessionaires—Manila Water Company Inc. (MWCI) and Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI), in justifying and sugarcoating the impact of water privatization, despite their inefficiency. Mismanaged MWSI suffered from bankruptcy but was bailed-out by the government in 2002, letting them undergo into a corporate rehabilitation instead of booting them out from the concession. MWCI, tagged as “the better concessionaire,” was also exposed from a controversy on earning more than what is allowed by the law, earning a 40.93-percent return on rate base (RORB), way higher than the allowable 12 percent.
Furthermore, private companies alike expressed more and more interest to water privatization in local water districts, which the government adamantly welcomed. With this, FDC chapters initiated studies about their area’s water district and mode of supply, thus exposing more of the private companies’ business interests in water. In Cebu alone, big companies like Aboitiz are aiming to manage the bulk-water supply in which FDC and the local water district in Cebu have engaged and challenged. Such is also the case in Ronda, Cebu, where prepaid water meters were installed and in FDC’s critique, and further treating water not as a right but a commodity. The same privatization schemes were seen in other regions of the country.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 March 2008 04:34 |
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