Research group IBON called for an end to power privatization and a shift to public, democratic control at the launch of People Opposed to Warrantless Electricity Rates and Energy Privatization (POWER), held today at the University of the Philippines Diliman School of Economics.
The forum brought together farmers, national minorities, environmental advocates, transport workers, commuters, progressive lawmakers, church workers, scientists, social enterprises, small entrepreneurs, women, urban poor, and the youth.
IBON Executive Director Sonny Africa presented short- and long- term alternatives to privatization. In the short term, he said, the government can give consumers immediate relief by restoring regulation and expanding democratic oversight, including steps to break the sector’s oligopolistic control. Immediate steps include:
- Permanent consumer, labor and community representation in power agencies, with genuine public hearings on rate increases, regulatory changes and energy investments.
- Full transparency through an open data portal on rate-base calculations, power supply procurement, plant-level data, transmission project costs, contracts, ownership and related-party transactions.
- Strict enforcement of existing ownership ceilings, alongside a sector-wide investigation of market concentration and cross-ownership, conglomerate by conglomerate.
- Stronger regulatory enforcement and safeguards against regulatory capture, including conflict-of-interest rules and a revolving-door ban.
- An independent public electricity consumer advocate to represent households and small businesses before regulators and the courts.
These reforms should be written into a new law to replace the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), said Africa.
In the long term, Africa called for expanding public ownership and capacity across generation, transmission, and distribution. This entails strengthening and adequately capitalizing the National Power Corporation (NPC) and the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), developing publicly owned generation facilities, and restoring TransCo’s ownership and operation of the national grid as a strategic public asset. He also proposed establishing a public renewable energy development corporation, gradually reacquiring key private power assets, and supporting local governments and electric cooperatives in developing their own energy projects.
Africa added that an integrated national power development plan should link the power sector to national industrialization, with lower power rates for priority industries and a transition to renewable energy that builds domestic industrial capacity.
POWER is a broad alliance opposing warrantless electricity rate hikes and the privatization of the power and energy sector. Attendees signed a symbolic pledge of solidarity under the call: “Serbisyo sa tao, huwag gawing negosyo. Stop privatization. Build public, democratic control of power and energy now.”
