UNCONSCIONABLE GREED

The hearings at the House of Representative exposed the industry malpractice of Meralco and its sister companies. While First Gas was being paid billions of pesos by Meralco for undelivered power which is eventually charged to the filipino people, Meralco purchased the difference from NAPOCOR at peak hours also being charged to the public. First Gas was being paid in BILLIONS while supplying very little power or none at all. This is highway robbery and the justification is that it is an industry practice coming from the fraudulent IPP contracts entered into by the FVR government under the Pick & Pay provision where the IPP is being paid by its CAPACITY to generate power and not the power it is generating. This is UNCONSCONABLE GREED where the public is charged twice by Meralco for the same eletricity it distributed.

But don't blame FVR for entering into that onerous contracts with the IPP. BLAME FORMER PRESIDENT CORY AQUINO whose decision to mothball the BNPP without providing sufficient replacement that resulted in the 12 hours brownouts that turned back our economy by 10 years. FVR succumb to blackmail of the foreign investors who refused to put up the generating plants without assurance of reasonable returns.

A MONOPOLY NAMED MERALCO

It was almost unbelievable that the govt. of Pres. Arroyo will dare to challenge the powerful and mighty Lopez Clan. The Lopezes not only control Meralco, but also the mammoth ABS-CBN media giant which is a powerful weapon that they can unleash to destroy their business and political enemies.

Pres. Arroyo must have felt it is time to respond to the continuous vilifications she has been getting from the media giant since the "Hello Garci" scandal in 2005. The constant barrage of criticism she continuously received from ABS-CBN/ANC anchors like Korina Sanchez and Ted Failon must be hurting her and she decided to struck back, using the GSIS to break-up the Meralco monopoly.

A brilliant idea hitting two birds in one stone. By breaking the Meralco monopoly, she can lower the electric rates and exact her pounds of fleash from the Lopezes.

She has only less that 2 years in office and look forward to a legacy she can leave and she rightly seen the cruel monopoly of Meralco and its insatiable greed for profit that makes our electricity rates the highest in Asia. By destroying the monopoly, she actually leave a meaningful legacy for the filipino people.