PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to open an in-vestigation into the failure of the electricity provider of Siquijor to address the province’s power woes.
Palace press officer Claire Castro said the President has summoned and ordered outgoing Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla and acting DOE Secretary Sharon Garin to resolve the issue and thor-oughly probe the Siquijor Island Power Cooperative.
Castro said DOE is also now looking at both short and long term solutions to the power problem, which has prompted local authorities to declare a state of calamity in Siquijor.
“Inutos ng Pangulo ang agarang pag-resolba sa matagal ng problema sa supply ng kuryente sa lalawigan. Nagsimula na po silang maglatag ng mga short-term at long-term solutions para maibsan ang hirap ng ating mga kababayan mula sa pansamantalang supply arrangements hanggang sa mas matibay at maaasahang power infrastructure para sa isla (The President has ordered the immediate resolution of the electric power supply in the province. [The DOE] has started to craft short-term and long-term solutions, including temporary supply arrangements, to ease the burden on the public until a steady and dependable power infrastructure is built in the island),” she said.
In another development, the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) has asked the DOE to scrap and replace its current rules on the competitive selection process (CSP) that govern electric rate-setting, saying this has led to higher costs for consumers.
In a letter to Garin dated June 3, copies of which were furnished Executive Secretary Lucas Ber-samin, Senate President Francis Escudero, and Speaker Martin Romualdez, Nasecore said DOE’s circular on the CSP, which governs the award of power supply contracts, has “clearly failed to uphold its core objectives of transparency, fair competition, and least-cost power supply pro-curement.”
Nasecore said it has been monitoring rates and power supply deals and has found out that “the CSP mechanism has not delivered meaningful market competition.”
“On the contrary, it has largely preserved the dominance of incumbent and affiliated generation companies, especially in the franchise area of Meralco… No new independent or reliable power suppliers have been introduced into Meralco’s generation mix in the past decade,” it also said.
The group said rates in the firm’s power supply agreements (PSA) have allegedly steadily risen because of the flawed CSP rules, with distribution utilities exploiting exemptions, emergency procurements, or procedural discretion to bypass genuine competition.
The group also slammed the award of PSAs to affiliated companies, which it said has discour-aged independent competitors, as it noted that there has been no new market player in the power supply segment of electricity distribution.
“The CSP’s repeated failure to deliver new suppliers or fair rates… exposes deep flaws in policy design and enforcement. Without urgent reform, Filipino consumers will remain at the mercy of anti-competitive arrangements and ever-rising electricity costs,” it added.
Meanwhile, Marcos also assured the people of Tacloban and those affected by the limited ac-cess to the San Juanico Bridge that he is closely monitoring the situation.
Castro said the President knows the importance of the bridge not just to the people but also for the trade and economy in Tacloban City, Samar and Leyte and the surrounding areas.
She said the President is also aware of the urgency of the rehabilitation of the structure to en-sure everyone’s safety.
Tacloban has already declared a state of emergency due to the limited access to the San Juanico Bridge, which has affect the transport of goods and supplies as well as the commute between Leyte and Samar and the surrounding provinces. – With Raymond Africa
