A common trait among Filipinos is to find fault with a complainant, as if it would reduce the validity of his complaint.

For example, someone might say: “magnanakaw ka” and the reply would be “bakit, magnanakaw ka rin naman ah!”. The clear meaning would be that his being a “magnanakaw” is not bad because the accuser is doing it as well. I think that is a Philo 1 fallacy.

Looking at Garcia’s backyard will not reduce his accusations against the Lopezes. If the Lopezes erred, they should be investigated or replaced; Even if Garcia is found guilty for his own wrongdoings, it does not imply that the Lopezes are innocent, nor should it reduce the gravity of their accountability.

May 15,2008, finally a pensioner got his 2007 13th month pension after much unnecessary proddings and woeful communications to the GSIS office with which without those would not have been remitted at all. And to think that many ads are beng spent on prompt services. I suggest those pensioners who have not received yet their 13th month pension must collect by all means or else the money might be used to buy off the Meralco.

By mere searching his name returns numerous pages exposing his ill-management of the government wrokers’ hard earned pension money. Apparently he is the palace favorite that even in 2004 amidst shameful controversy at the GSIS, he still clings to his post - siya itong “kapit tuko”. I would like to ask him if there was at least a day in his life that he believe there is God. I can’t help but think that his is the work of a God-less being.

There’s nothing wrong if Mr. Dignadice made negative comments against the GSIS head, which to me, is not only laudable but aggressive in approach. Why not? The Senate should look into the “trash” of the GSIS, too, if it wants to for the sake of the millions of government employees. But I could only commend Mr. Garcia’s high-handed tactics to intimidate Meralco on changing its management style considering that it has sheepishly duped millions of power consumers in Metro Manila, even lumping in the electricity bills, including the power pilferages made by unscrupulous people in the guise of billions of systems losses.

I don’t want to surmise that Mr. Dignadice may either have an interest or once connected to Meralco so that his heart is still with the wrong doings of the power distributor’s owners.

Is this Mr. Winston Garcia, the same GSIS personnel who is responsible in spending GSIS fund in buying paintings and artifacts because he considered this as GSIS investment strategy? Can someone dig more into this person who seems to self-appoint himself to battle the Lopezes? Bong Dignadice seems to know more about this GSIS bureaucrats appointee of Gloria’s bogus government. Who is he and what contribution has he made to help GSIS contributors?

For the past few days, several articles have had been published regarding what had happened in the last Meralco’s stockholders meeting. Both camps (Garcia’s and Lopez’s) have expressed their positions and their strategies. Amidst this battle that is fought with data and allegations, which we (consumers) could neither confirm nor deny what is true and what is not, there’s one thing that I really noticed that was not given significant amount of effort. And the is the SEC CDO, is it really null and void, based on legal aspect rather than Meralco’s point of veiw? If the said SEC CDO is indeed null and void and the only “excuse” SEC has is they forgot such details, that would be scary! How could they forget? Are they not supposedly the experts of their own process? Or they’re (SEC) too eager to come up with something to serve their personal/political motives hence letting out something that is fabricated and didn’t go through the right process was their option?

SEC should be answerable too on what had happened, because of the lack in quality of service, their CDO failed to servce its “purpose” and made the entire issue worst.

If there’s no CDO, the stockholders meeting could have been different… could have ended with something positive for the consumers… and investors.

If the CDO was not null and void, the stockholders meeting could have been different… could have ended with something positive for the consumers… and investors.l

Do not believe everything you hear from the news, especially those from ABS CBN. It is so obvious all is sanitized in favor of the Lopezes. They selectively cut out speeches of administration officials and make up stories from it. I do not know much of Mr. Garcia to like or unlike him. What i do know is the high cost of electricity. If the Lopezes are tired of Meralco as they claimed they are, then they should let go. What’s keeping them? Profit!

Hi BD, if you were resourceful enough, you’ll learn that Garcia as head of GSIS and 3 others represent some 32 percent of the total government investments in Meralco and as such they sit in the Meralco board of directors. The issue against Meralco is not about the future of the pension fund or what happens to Garcia when he leaves GSIS but rather the allegations of abuses and unfair practices and mismanagement of the power company that brought the cost of power in the country as the second highest in the region after Japan.

The charges against Meralco are taken with serious concern since that company has been admonished twice by the Supreme Court for overcharging and was ordered to refund some 30 billion pesos to its customers much of which have not been done yet.

Meralco has the monopoly of electric distribution for so long and the Lopezes may be feeling today the back lash of their oligarchic ways in operating their businesses and using that power as a political tool. It seems the Lopezes have not learned from the Marcos experience.

garcia cannot do anything to reduce electricity cost to consumers. wait, he cannot do anything to relieve gsis members of their plight - late pensions, if they come at all!

meralco’s hands are tied anyway. it is a franchise and what it can and cannot charge or pass-on to consumers as costs are provided by law. garcia is barking at the wrong tree. he should bark at congressmen and senators to review the franchise and revise it.

we have enough power regulatory laws and bodies. all of them have a certain budget. all of them have high profile managers. all of them ineffective! sayang lang taxes na binabayad natin.

hmmm….winston garcia? dami ghost projects GSIS under this kapit-tuko and aso ni gma…one example is the unfinished building infronf of Phil. Coconut Authority…the various systems devt na overprice, yung luxurious lifestyle nya and huge salaries and benefits mga GSIS top hierarchy, not to mention his contribution in 2004 election…now all of a sudden his making an issue as if he is the saviour of the masses against the oligarch lopezes, parehong buwaya nag-aaway. The most mind-boggling is Winston Garcia is acting as if he is the owner of the GSIS shares, a sign of arrogance and pakitang tao walang pinag-iba sa kanyang amo…for sure, issue will die down pag nakuha na nila ang gusto nila to buy time against corruption investigation and various human rights abuses of thi govt. Winston Garcia vs. Meralco is like Predator vs. Alien and/ or Nightmare on Elm St. vs. Jason…God save the our country

I AGREE WITH BONG DIGNADICE. WINSTON GARCIA SHOULD FIRST MAKE SURE THAT THE RETIRED EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES GET THEIR PENSIONS. MY DAD WAS AN HONEST AND EXEMPLARY SCHOOL OFFICIAL. WHEN HE RETIRED, HE HAD TO WAIT IN LINE IN THE HEAT FOR TWO DAYS EACH MONTH TO GET THE PENSION THAT HE RIGHFULLY DESERVED. THERE IS A LOT OF STRESS, HUMILIATION, AND FRUSTRATION THAT RETIRED EMPLOYEES GO THROUGH EACH MONTH. BUT BECAUSE MONEY IS SCARCE, MOST OF THEM JUST BEAR IT. MY DAD PASSED AWAY IN SEPTEMBER AND UNTIL NOW, ALMOST NINE MONTHS LATER, MY MOM HAS STILL TO SEE THE PENSION THAT SHE RIGHTFULLY DESERVES. WINSTON GARCIA NEEDS TO LOOK INTO HIS OWN BACKYARD FIRST BEFORE EMBARKING ON A BIGGER CHALLENGE LIKE MERALCO. IF HE CANNOT EVEN MANAGE GSIS RIGHT, HOW DARE HE EVEN THINK THAT HE CAN TAKE CHARGE OF MERALCO.

mr. garcia wanting a bigger share of the pie and control of the company is understandable. but, i just want to find out if we are being overcharged by meralco. is the government turning a blind eye because it will result in loss in revenue?

kami nga, we don’t even get the exact change when paying our bills. with 10 million customers multiplied by 10 cents or so, that would amount to quite a bit. meron ng system lost, meron pa rin change lost.

If Meralco is mismanaged as Mr. Garcia claims, how about the GSIS? How about the government bureaucracy? Which is better managed in this country, private business or government agencies? With so many clowns in our government agencies, it is no wonder that foreign investments consider the Philippines as the last country in Asia to invest in.

If the Government is supposed to be privatizing all Gov’t controlled companies, what the heck are they trying to do? Is GMA behind this again? It seems like the Administration of GMA doesn’t like the reports of ABS-CBN is broadcasting, so this would be a payback to the Lopezes.

Me and my family were just amazed when we saw on TV Mr. Garcia saying that Mr. Manolo(?) Lopez is an arrogant and a desperate person. We think he is actually describing himself.

From today’s news these are what I surmised…

a proxy vote was conducted ahead of the scheduled stock election meeting. this allows the lopez’s block to elect enough number of board members in favor of their interest. this is what Garcia is disputing, which he alleged to have been null and void since they conducted said election ahead of the scheduled meeting. Two groups are warring for control of Meralco, one representing the Lopezes and the other, the government. The common good of all, electric consumers is at stake. this is what happened when government infrastructure is left to the control of private groups who have connection with those occupying the government seats. missy

News quoted:

“All I need is the confirmation of the SEC that the results of the elections are without the invalidated proxies. Once this is confirmed, we will constitute the board and immediately appoint the management team of Meralco,” he told reporters Wednesday.

By late Wednesday, however, SEC officials could not confirm receiving the motion filed by the GSIS.

The SEC, on the other hand, moved swiftly earlier Wednesday after Meralco ignored its cease-and-desist order (CDO) issued on Tuesday questioning proxy votes for the Lopez directors in the stockholders’ meeting. It ordered Meralco to explain why it should not be cited in contempt.

‘Show cause’

In an order served to three of Meralco’s top officials, SEC Commissioner Jesus Martinez, acting with the concurrence of the commission en banc, directed Meralco to “show cause” why SEC should not penalize it for declaring as “null and void” SEC’s CDO.

Martinez gave Meralco until noon Friday to respond to its directive.

The SEC also set a hearing to get Meralco’s side on this matter, as well as to listen to its position on the petition filed by the GSIS on Tuesday challenging 1.9 billion proxy votes that were supposed to be cast in favor of Lopez associates during the company’s board elections.

“Your nonappearance at the said hearing will constitute a waiver of the right to be heard on the aforesaid matter,” Martinez said.

Null and void

Meralco declared the SEC’s CDO null and void, citing, among other reasons, the absence of a docket number, date and official seal of the commission.

It also said that since the fight between the GSIS and the Lopezes was an intracorporate matter, the regular courts should have jurisdiction over it.

SEC secretary Gerard Lukban said the show-cause order was served to Meralco chair Lopez, president Jesus Francisco, and acting corporate secretary Anthony Rosete Wednesday morning.

Lukban said the Court of Appeals was the proper body to declare an order by the SEC null and void.

He said provisions under the Securities Regulation Code and Corporation Code would allow the SEC to mete out a penalty of P50,000 to P5 million to and possibly imprisonment of Meralco executives on contempt charges.

“The commission’s act of issuing the CDO is an act as a regulator not as an adjudicator,” Lukban said.

He explained that as a regulator, which was similar to having police powers, the SEC had jurisdiction over matters that posed a risk to investor interest.

In seeking the CDO, the GSIS said the right of the investing public, including its right to an honest and fair election of Meralco’s board of directors, would be “trampled upon.” It said it was not an ordinary investor in Meralco since it represented 1.3 million GSIS members.

1.9-B questionable votes

Garcia said that per the tabulation of Meralco’s external auditor Sycip Gorres & Velayo (SGV) Tuesday night, there were 1,900,503,506 questionable proxy votes cast in favor of five nominees affiliated with the Lopez clan.

Approximately 380 million votes each were distributed among five Lopez nominees—Meralco vice chair Felipe Alfonso (380,100,701), Francisco (380,100,701), chair Lopez (380,100,702), director Christian Monsod (380,100,701), and another director Cesar Virata (380,100,701).

Garcia further claimed that the illegal votes edged out the fifth GSIS nominee, Eusebio Tanco, from getting a seat on Meralco’s 11-member board.

Based on Tuesday night’s tally, the Lopezes clinched five seats, keeping management of the 105-year-old power distributor. Four of the seats belonged to government while two were elected independent directors.

Garcia said that if the “illegal proxies” were not used, the reverse would have happened, with government controlling five seats with the addition of Tanco while the Lopezes would be reduced to four seats, without Virata.

The five government seats would have been occupied by him, Daisy Arce, Bernardino Abes, Jeremy Parulan and Eusebio Tanco. The four seats would go to Lopez, and associates Francisco, Monsod and Alfonso.

Independent directors Artemio Panganiban and Vicente Panlilio would be retained.

Legal requirements not met

Garcia accused Meralco management of amassing proxy votes ahead of the Meralco stockholders’ meeting without complying with legal requirements of how these proxies should be solicited. He said that the proxy forms were not dated, and that these were proxies from last year.

Meralco strongly denied the allegation.

The GSIS, in its motion filed with the SEC, asked the regulator to exclude the 1.9 billion questionable proxy votes and to confirm that the board of Meralco consists of the following: (representing five government seats): Garcia (943,843,841 votes); Arce (941,272,988), Abes (939,777,838), Parulan (927,120,201) and Tanco (880,183,654).

Representing the Lopez group would be Lopez (747,578,287), Francisco (746,077,757), Monsod (745,466,267), Alfonso (734,246,244).

The independent directors would still be Panganiban and Panlilio.

“We hope the confirmation will come as soon as possible so we can immediately reorganize Meralco with the end in view and in fulfillment of our commitment to lower power rates by 10 to 20 percent in a span of two months from the time we take effective management of the company. If we can’t deliver in two months’ time, our five-member team is committed to immediately resign,” Garcia said.

Monico Jacob, Meralco regulatory management chief, told reporters late Tuesday that the utility would confer with its lawyers on its next moves.

“We don’t know the extent of the sanctions that can be imposed (on us by the SEC). As far as we’re concerned, what we’ve done is legal and no sanctions are due us,” he said.

Francisco said he was expecting the SEC’s show-cause order. “Our lawyers will have to frame an appropriate reply,” he said, before rushing off to a board meeting at Meralco headquarters Wednesday.

Meralco shares drop

the issue here is not management or mismanagement which we filipinos are always untrustfull unsuspenting with our leaders.
the issue here is not garcia vs meralco, not personal but corporate ;the issue of election of officers in meralco’s board, as we all know gsis has a 23% shares of the company.
mr garcia is doing his right and duty to represent the government by way of gsis being the president and that is mandated by law or by sec.

why always associate wrong doing? why always think otherwise.
these people are duty bound to do their job, let them do their work. if there is wrongdoing, misuse of pension fund, let the COA do its work. we cannot just speculate and conclude wrongdoing by way of our thinking.

let’s be trustful once in a while if we trust ourselves.

The news on the Winston Garcia & Meralco controversy is a matter of public interest and beneficial to consumers, readers and viewers. Both sides of the controversy should be aired. The controversy gives us a chance to monitor whether the media men of ABS/CBN-ANC are giving/will give a positive slant of the news in favor of Meralco (its sister) and the negative slant against GSIS, represented by Mr. Garcia. Objective coverage of the controversy by all media practiioners is suggested so that we will have an informed judgment which side is right on every aspect of the controversy. Until then, we should withhold judgment.

It is unconscionable, if not criminal, for an electric distribution utility firm to deliberately purchase energy far in excess of their actual system requirements and passed the cost of the unused/undelivered energy to its customers in order to benefit the affiliated energy suppliers. The ERC should not allow this kind of onerous practice because it opens the floodgates to massive cheating. If there is evidence of such a connivance, then both the utility firm and its suppliers must be charged with fraudulent and unethical business practice. The guilty parties must be jailed.

In order to make an utility firm more responsible in its energy purchases, all unused power must be paid by the company and considered as part of its operational loss. It is now for investors to monitor whether the distribution utility firm is exercising due diligence in analyzing its power requirements before it enters into any energy purchase contract. Otherwise, their share of profits may also end up in the laps of the affiliated energy suppliers.

some posters here blame meralco for high power prices. I bet these same people know zilch about electricity and the power industry.
high power prices? what power plants are around us but not with us? nuclear power. meralco’s fault that napocor did not build a nuke plant?

as the saying goes: big mouth, big wind

About the Garcia vs. Lopez debate (it is not really Meralco vs. GSIS) looking at it from the view of pa-pogi epek Garcia - his point should be taken as an investor - a big one at that - BUT somebody must tell Garcia, that he, by his very own DIRTY hand, singlehandedly caused share price erosion becuase of his big bad mouth, YAKKING all the negative words which erodes the shareholder worth thus I being a GSIS member am now on the losing side because by the very hot air of Garcia he is destroying my hard earned money in GSIS … the progfligacy of Garcia is brought about by the fact that he plays around with the money of the GSIS members damn the members as long as he gets his 5 centavo worth of air time. By the way, ask any GSIS member if we get the quality and professional service and financial windfall from GSIS that Garcia brags about — the answer is a BIG FAT BAD GSIS SERVICE —

In his fight with the Lopezes, Winston Garcia is representing the interest of the GSIS members which hold a majority share in Meralco.

Winston Garcia wants to make sure that Meralco is not cheating its consumers which include majority of the government employees. He wants to know if the consumers were over-charged to benefit First Gas, a Lopez-owned energy supplier, in which the GSIS has no investment participation. He wants to know if Meralco cheated the investors, including the GSIS, by funneling its profits through purchase transactions with Lopez-affiliated companies. In a nutshell, Winston Garcia does not want the GSIS to be cheated by the Lopezes.

As the head of the GSIS, Winston Garcia has his own duties and responsibilities, and he better keep his nose clean; but why ask the Senate to investigate the GSIS when we are not sure that they can find something there? Are we not spending precious funds sending the Senate on a fishing expedition? What is required initially is to check with the GSIS auditors and other government auditing agencies to see if there are possible anomalies.

By the way, do not also over-rely on our senators, some of them may be worse than Winston Garcia in intelligence and honesty.

The promdi named Winston Garcia fell flat on his face when he tried to maneuver the governments tactics into the Meralco stockholders meeting using the Energy Regulatory Board as his tool. Does he not know that this is MetroManila and that promdi’s antics will not prosper here? Next time he should bring his handlers Senators Miriam Santiago and Juan Ponce Enrile (and PGMA herself) along so they can all wallow in the muck of their corrupt minds and ways. Sino ba lolokohin nila kung sino talaga ang tunay na nagpapataas ng electricity rates. It is the corrupt ways of this Arroyo government exemplified by the NBN-ZTE scandals, the P500,000 pamasahe for the congressmen who go to lick the hands of PGMA in Malacanang and the never liquidated billions in pork barrels of congressmen. All these money being shouldered by the Filipino people. The domino effect of this corruption in government is the reason why electricity rates are high and not the other way around.

from what i’ve heard, watched and read from both lopez and non-lopez controlled propaganda…there are two main cause of high electricity:

1. the law
2. the government taxes

that’s it. blame the government first because the electric industry is a highly regulated industry. which means…just in case you don’t know…meralco can’t move without the government approving what they’re charging.

revise the law but then again the other eletricity companies including those controlled by the Garcias will complain. so will this have an end? i don’t think so

Mon Duenast Says
Profit???

if not for profit…why would you go into business?

Many people are barking at the wrong tree.

The issue is THE HIGH RATE OF ELECTRICITY, HOW TO BRING IT DOWN. Its not the GSIS problem, thats different. If some people have problems with GSIS, then take it to a different forum, and focus in these issue on how to bring down the electricity rate.

ALL OF THEM are the clulprits in the high cost of electricity:

Napocor’s high generation charges.

ERC’s inneficiency as a watchdog and rulings are serve in a silver platter to Meralco.

Meralco’s greediness in profit. The reason why they are ordered by the SC to refund twice.

Instead of name calling, why not focus on how to bring the cost down? Meralco, Napocor and ERC should tighten their belts as well for the benefit of the people who are bombarded with price increase from all sides.

Goodday to all, who will be the loser???

God Bless Philippines

Kidlat

PerryScope

by Perry Diaz

The Arroyo-Lopez War

Finally, after almost 80 years of a family feud between two wealthy clans, it seems that the final battle has started. On one side of the conflict is the Arroyo clan, wealthy merchants of Chinese origin who gained political supremacy in the early 1900’s when their patriarch, Jose Arroyo, was elected Senator in 1919. With the help of his close friend — then Senate President Manuel L. Quezon — his younger brother, Dr. Mariano Arroyo, was appointed provincial governor in 1928.
On the other side is the Lopez clan headed by Eugenio “Ening” Lopez who used his newspaper El Tiempo — founded in 1901 by his father, Benito Lopez, the first governor of Iloilo in 1906 who was assassinated two years later by a rival political faction — to expose the jueteng ring that Governor Arroyo and a Chinese trader named Sualoy started in Iloilo. El Tiempo’s incessant exposure of the jueteng operations finally paid off. Sualoy was charged, found guilty, imprisoned, and then deported to China.
That was the beginning of the Arroyo-Lopez War. As a result of the crackdown on the jueteng operations, Governor Arroyo filed a libel suit against Lopez and El Tiempo. Lopez retaliated by filing administrative charges against Governor Arroyo. Governor General Davis was also informed about the case and he sent Judge Francisco Moran to investigate. Moran discovered that Governor Arroyo was involved in the jueting operations including a gambling den. Consequently, Moran dismissed the libel charges against Lopez and his newspaper. In 1930, the administrative trial found Governor Arroyo guilty of corruption and Governor General Davis relieved him from his post.
Humiliated, Jesusa Lacson Arroyo, the widow of Senator Arroyo who died in 1927, picked up the pieces and moved her entire family to Negros Occidental. One of her sons, Ignacio, would become the father of the current First Gentleman, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo.
Meanwhile, Eugenio Lopez progressed in business and his brother Fernando entered into politics and was elected three times as Vice-President. Don Eugenio established the first airline in Asia and expanded his newspaper business. In 1962, he purchased Meralco, the country’s largest electric company. His son, Eugenio “Geny” Lopez, Jr., built ABS-CBN to become the country’s undisputed leader in broadcasting.
In 1972, the Lopez family suffered under the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Geny Lopez was implicated in an alleged plot to kill Marcos. Under obscure circumstances, Lopez escaped from detention and slipped out of the country. Marcos’ brother-in-law, Kokoy Romualdez, then took over Meralco. When Marcos was ousted in 1986, Cory Aquino returned Meralco and ABS-CBN to the Lopezes.
For more than 20 years, the Lopezes had undisputed control of Meralco. They also diversified into new business ventures. Over the past several years, ABS-CBN became a pain in the neck of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Their coverage of the various scandals involving the First Couple have contributed to the Arroyos’ negative public image.
It is no wonder then that Meralco is now in the crosshairs of President Arroyo’s sight. The joint congressional hearing chaired by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago and Congressman Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo has stirred into life a family feud that has been dormant for 78 years. There were speculations that the real reason for the Meralco “witch hunt” is for the government to take over Meralco and break it up into smaller companies. If this would happen, guess who would take over a divested Meralco?
Let’s look at someone who has been at the forefront of the battle: Winston Garcia, President and General Manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). His aggressive and arrogant demeanor in the Meralco board room — he is a recent member on the Meralco board representing GSIS which has 23% ownership of Meralco — has made a lot of people wonder what his ulterior motive is. Many believe that Garcia is on the board to wage a “proxy war” for the Arroyos.
For one thing, Garcia is not the typical government bureaucrat. He is a scion of a powerful political dynasty in Cebu with close ties to Malacanang. His father, Pablo, is a congressman and concurrently Deputy Speaker of the House. His brother, Pablo John, is also a congressman. And his sister, Gwendolyn, is the current Governor of Cebu. She announced recently that she is a candidate for Vice President in 2010.
In addition, the Garcia family has large stockholdings in the Aboitiz-owned Visayan Electric Company (VECO), the country’s second largest private electric utility. The corporate officers include three Garcias, to wit: Dennis A. Garcia, President and General Manager; Ramontito A. Garcia, Treasurer; and Jess Anthony N. Garcia, legal counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary. Of the 11 members of the VECO Board of Directors, five are Garcias, namely, Dennis N.A. Garcia, Ramontito E. Garcia, Gil A. Garcia II, Charles Sylvester A. Garcia, and Antonio V. A. Garcia de Escaño. The Aboitizes, have five members of the Board. Recently, a news account reported that Winston Garcia is serving VECO as a lawyer on retainer. The question is: What would VECO — and Winston Garcia — stand to gain if Meralco were broken up into smaller companies?
It is also a common knowledge that the Aboitizes are business cronies of the First Couple. With the Lopezes trying hard to defend themselves from a pack of wolves, it would probably take a miracle to survive these attacks. But miracles do happen and they happen when it’s least expected to happen. And the last and final question is: What would the Arroyos stand to gain when Meralco breaks up?
(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)
Dear Friends:

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Editor

It’s called motivation. whatever they are, only Mr. Winston Garcia knows it.

People, the public, benefit from it.

Lets focus on the ball, folks. Issues. whats happening in Mr Garcia’s domain is a seperate issue. one at a time, folks.

Garcia blames misdeeds of Meralco, even he sits as a director in Meralco. Why he did not know about all wht now he blames already long ago? Is he such a bad official? Then he has nothing to get as a controllng boss of Meralco. Besides, considering all the allegations and complaints about GSIS, he would better look at hios own problems. He has really not the reputation for to make power cheaper, maybe he just would invest profits in art to beautify his offices at Meralco. Change that crazy contracts with the “independent power uppliers” so that they will not paid for never delivered power and at exorbitant overpriced rates. This could help to lower power rates.

Winston Garcia, after so many years at GSIS, has neither vastly improved its services nor changed the negative opinion of most of its retirees. And yet he crusades into Meralco screaming mismanagement. Managing GSIS should be a fulltime job so I just wonder what he is doing wasting time raising thunder and lightning in another company? Mr. Garcia, a lot of your retirees, teachers, postmen, clerks among others, are dying, literally, while waiting for your checks to arrive while you fight a fight that is not yours in the first place. You are paid a princely sum to be a good GSIS commissioner and not to be a MERALCO crusader. I hope history will judge you as the guy who turned GSIS around and not as a notorious trapo who tried to curry favors with malacanang by doing its hatchet jobs, so-to-speak.

Meralco is buying most of its electricity from Lopez-owned Generating Plants at much higher price than at National Power Corporation. Meralco takes advantage of its monopoly of distributing electricity to rake profits for the Lopezes’ Generating Plants. Result - higher cost for the people. Meralco from news award contracts for big ticket items to Lopezes’ owned-companies. Result-easy profit for the Lopezes. The meter deposits? The one month advance deposit? In case the customer fails to pay his monthly bill? Bulshit. When you don’t pay, Meralco immediately disconnects your service.

The Lopezes cannot thrive on competition. Look at their Bayantel, Maynilad, Manila Chronicle - all losers. North Expressway? Have we forgotten the controversy in congress and how the toll fee increse by about 500%.

Calling the oppositions, cause-oriented groups, please help the people on this Meralco issue. The people will love you for this.

The Phil. Daily Inquirer, your Editorial especially? You only see bad things in everything GMA does but overlook valid issues against Meralco. Why???

To Mr. Garcia, you have the support of those who see what Meralco is really doing. Please continue your crusade.

i agree w/ bamm, DLR, harry king and al…

if garcia has his own trash in his backyard, it does not diminish the gravity of any wrongdoing meralco has done to its consumers. the people have been suffering under their mismanagement, its time they let go. that is what one lopez said, right?

Well…. I admire Garcia in bringing up this matter. I’m sure he is ready for the consequences of his action. He knows that the offended party (and its allies) will take action against him. Just like what Bong Dignadice is doing.

Whatever happens, we should thank Garcia because he did the right thing and we expect some positive results to this.

Mr. Bong Dignadice, for your info when Mr Garcia took over as head of GSIS, he made alot of changes in GSIS, e.g. salaries of teacher, pension fund, investment and the to this date GSIS with a savings of billion of pesos. the lopezes are making a lot money .

ok. meralco is being mismanaged by the lopezes. but, if Mr. Garcia truly cares for the small gov’t employees, who truly owns the gsis… then he or the gov’t should not try to take it over.
If the lopezes are not good, i don’t think Garcia or any gov’t appointed manager, is any better.
Look at the COC’s…

While I somehow agree with Mr. Dignadice`s sentiments as to Mr. Winston Garcia`s use of his position to represent GSIS against MERALCO, we should also seriously consider of the long nagging problem of MERALCO abuses which has gone unnoticed since the Cory administration`s turnover of the power utility company back to the Lopezes, save alone for the persistent senate speeches and attempts of Senator Enrile to lambast the aforesaid MERALCO debacle. Long since someone else spoke openly against these corporate malpractices committed by the power distribution firm against the consumers. Call it a judgment call on the part of Mr. Garcia, as he represents the government interests, which happen to represent the people’s paramount interests. But be as it may seem in the eyes of Mr. Dignadice’s eyes that Mr. Garcia’s motives are questionable, I still am happy that finally a stronger voice of the majority silently but oftenly cursing at the court proven abuses of MERALCO has risen to this occasion. The Filipino migrants should not be blind to this!

Galit ang Magnanakaw sa kapwa Magnanakaw…. Greediness is next to richness. Please have mercy on the innocent people that you feed upon. God will give the verdict after all.

Yes Missy, you are referring to the same person, the one and only Mr. Winston Garcia, the President and GM of GSIS.

I read a lot of articles about him citing irregularities with the way he manages GSIS. Check out this link from inquirer.net

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080511-135782/GSIS_A_govt_system_without_service

He came out lately like a “Knight in Shinning Armor out to slay the dragon” to rescue us, the helpless power consumers, from our oppressor. Only those who are not informed will believe him. Too much politics can really be so tiring.

I am more inclined to believing that all of his allegations is just a divertionary tactic for us to forget the real and depressing issues out there.

Boggart may have a point that Mr. Garcia might be barking at the wrong tree. I guess if our gov officials are really sincere about bringing down the cost of electricity, they should also investigate and act swiftly on other entities like Napocor and even the absurd and excessive taxes our gov is charging in our bills

Meralco was awarded as one of the Top 20 of the 2007 ICD Corporate Governance Scorecard for Publicly listed Companies by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) on May 28, 2008 in Makati City.

The citation was signed by Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao, Chairman of the Institute of Corporate Directors; Atty. Fe B. Barin, Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Atty. Francis Ed. Lim, President of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE); and Atty. Cesar L. Villanueva, Dean of the Ateneo Law School.

Meralco rated high in the corporate governance scorecard that measures public disclosure through the regulators, the exchange and its corporate website and corporate reports. ICD is an independent and autonomous institute that champions corporate governance reforms in the country.

The more best practices a company has, the higher its score.

The corporate governance scorecard rates all publicly listed corporation’s on compliance with and actual practice of corporate governance compared with national, regional and international standards. It was a “person-on-the-street” test: it relies on public disclosure.

isnt it ironic that one of the main issue being hurled against meralco by winston garcia is disclosure? now we should wonder, what about the disclosure of winston as regards to his expenses in his campaign against meralco including the legal fees, ads, and stay in crowne plaza?

Winston Garcia is like a CAFGU (Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit) which follows order from the superior officers in attacking the MERALCO where the Lopezes have majority shares.

High costs of electricity should not be blamed on the Lopezes or MERALCO because the’re just charging the consumers what the law is telling them to charge… charges on generation charge, power losses, distribution charge etc are being so provided in the power act which was enacted by Congress in the previous years.

Why is Mr. Garcia attacking MERALCO simply because his bosses have interest in it. What interest? of course to take over the management and the power sector using GSIS as a legal entry point… of course 2010 election is fast approaching so full court pressure should be employed to win the game… only the ignorant can’t understand the game…

Lopezes are very influential in business and politics all over the archipelago.. they have clout which strong enough win a candidate for president… they have armaments which can destroy opponent… that theory is very simple.

On the other hand, does Mr. Garcia really representing us (GSIS Member)? I don’t think so, simply because he cannot even reduced the GSIS premium to the very least but instead collect and collect higher premium contributions from member who are being used as milking cow… retired employees took hard in collecting what they have paid to GSIS… now Garcia is telling that he just merely representing and protecting GSIS members interest in MERALCOs share.. does he??????

The government has no business taking over publicly-listed companies. The government’s job is to regulate businesses. The power industry is highly regulated. If power cost is high because of overcharging by Meralco, then ERC, the agency mandated to regulate Meralco, is not doing its job. Mr. Garcia should take over ERC to lower power cost. If the government cannot run its own agency, ERC, effectively, what makes them think they can run Meralco better?

The issue about Meralco is about allegation of unfair pratice & mismanagment. The issues are not being answered by the Lopez group because perhaps they think that they are above the rest.
It’s unfortunate that we have to give political color to the issue or even velify Mr. Garcia. Because in reality all that Mr. Garcia is doing is defending consumers rights.
We areeally are a very strange people not tp appreciate what he is doing when at the same time we hope to have lower power bills.
Makes me wounder what does the pinoy really want & how does he propose to achive it.
Insted it’s all about a personality game. Who is more maganda ang dating sa tao. maybe the Lopez have the upper hand since they give us non stop entertainment.
Mr. Garcia is not a likable person insted.
Sad, that we can be such a superficial society & it’s impossible to understand the real issues.
We seem to resist change in whatever form.
It is like giving the Lopez group a blessing that they can go ahead & continue their mismanagment while we are burdened by heavy power bills.
The Lopez group must really love the pinoys.
Ang daling lokohin!!!!!!!!

Perhaps the real problem about the Lopez group is that they are GREEDY!!!!
The signal that they send is Meralco is theirs & theirs alone!!!
Over thgeir dead body can anybody take it away from them!!!!
Thsi selfish attitute automatically closes the door for change & better ways of doing things.
The Lopez group is actually telling us all that there is nobody else who can do a better job then them!!!!!
In the world of real business nobody is indespensable.
Anyone w/ better ideas & innovative way of doing things is always welcome.
But in the Lopez world, everything insted is a matter of “private property”.
The issue has deteriorated into a “personal matter”.
If anyone looks into the business history of the Lopez group. Theya re not one who run their companies very well. Look at bayantel & maynilad. Not even abs-cbn is doing that good even when they say they are #1.
The issue is purely a business matter. It’s only the Lopez group who is projecting themselves as some sort of underdog & giving the issue political color.
It’s really a business. It’s about who can deliver the goods at the most resonable price.
Winston garcia is challenging the Lopez group, but the Lopez group is not man enough.
For the Lopez group Meralco is literaly a symbol of “power”.
The Lopez got hit hard during martial law because they where the symbol of the oligarchy.
The oligarchy that wants to be stronger then the State.
The strange thing in this country is that when the State tries to do something that is in defence of the consumers. It’s the overment yet that is wrong.
If the goverment through the GSIS does not do anything to defend the consumers then who will?
Or are the consumers telling the Lopez group that what they are doing is OK.
Why don’t all those consumersin defence of the Lopez group lead a march to show their support to the Lopez group & tell them what a good job they are doing managaing Meralco & there is no one ellse who can do it better!!!!

Im confused with people saying that Meralco’s profit is dictated by law or thru ERC’s blessing?

Ang dali niyo naman maniwala! The fact that they were ordered by the SC to refund twice only shows that they are charging higher than the usual.

If they are really willing to help the people, its only a matter of tightening their expensive belts, sacrificing just a few of their profits, their IPP’s and same with Napocor. Suspending VAT on those who consume minimal electricity, specifically on the households. For sure electricity rate will be cheaper.

I’m a stockholder of Meralco and I did not vote for Mr. Garcia. If he really wants to lower power rate, he should take over ERC since it approves all power rate petitions. After all, he’s a close ally of the President. There’s no need to take over Meralco.

On the other hand, if Mr. Garcia just wants to take over Meralco, then all these talk of lowering power rate is foolish from a corporate raider’s viewpoint. He might have won the proxy fight if he just said I want to take over Meralco to enrich all the stockholders of the company. After all, that’s what stockholders want to hear: more dividends and higher stock price. But he’s playing corporate raider and pretending consumer activist at the same time. He did a lousy job in both.

Perhaps the real problem about the Lopez group is that they are GREEDY!!!!
joey..the issue of meralcos monopoly is partly blamed to the govt who allowed to give them long franchise instead of inviting new players in power distribution industry. and dont blame the lopezes for being a power player in the philippines because it is part of of business and politics not only here but in other countries.The only questionable issue is the timing of this arrogant winston garcia and all of a sudden meralco is their favorite target. We know the greedy practice of business and meralco is a business entity so part lang yun ng so called “business practice”
But the real issue mali na yung timing, mali pa yung tao na naka front ala “joan of arc” and for what reasons?
hmmm…if this govt and previous govt is consistent on their policies to reduce power charges maraming paraan and kaagarang maipapatupad nila ang kaso may ibang agenda ang magaling na pinuno ng GSIS at hintayin na lang natin ang tunay na motibo ng biglang pag-iingay ni Winston Garcia.
ang bayan ng pinas laging naiipit sa mga awayan ng magnanakaw, buwaya at mga ganid. Iisa lang naman ang gusto ng bawat grupo na mas makalamang sa isang grupo.
and with this issue, malacanang again prevails with their strategy to divide public opinion and buy time from the real issues of corruption and human rights
abuses.
ano na naman kayang isyu ang susunod na bubuksan ng malacanang mafia at arroyo corrupt-poration?
God save our country

Meralco is like a dragon that spits fire but unseen fire called electricity. That’s why nobody dares fight that dragon.
Like water, electricity is a necessity. It is part of our basic life, that’s why poor or rich alike are consumed to electricity whether legal or jumper electric.

That’s why when we talk of Meralco, it means electric. Meralco is a monopoly. It has control over its consumers when it comes to power rate, though it maybe a regulated franchise public utility. But when electric is burdened on the shoulder of our poor pinoys, then it is time for government to act against this giant.

Whenever people complains of high price, the blame is always to Arroyo being head of the state. But piecing it together, like a domino, it starts and ends where it begins. Just like electricity, when the price goes high, it has a ripple effect of affecting everyone and most affected are the lowly pinoys, the cause of high price, the electricity.

Mr. Garcia has every right to contest the nomination of the Lopezes to run the franchise,being the head of GSIS which has a stake in the company. Good Mr. Garcia is doing it by law, the SEC law and not like a Marcos law where the only reason for takeover was Mr. Martial and its law and the reason it affected the general welfare of the people.

My sister teacher is retired and I never heard her complained about her pension check, that means the GSIS is handling and handing her contribution back. I never heard of Mr. Garcia pocketing commission out of the agency’s investment unlike what we read about Eraps.Yet, many are speculating the misuse, mismanagement of the system which is a general perception without evidentially basis.
What can you expect from people of paranoiac mentality where there is always suspicious mind.

When the rice crisis occured, the government was there to control and sell the rice cheaper to the poor.
With the power rate unaffordable to the poor, the Arroyo government is putting 2 billion subsidy for those who cannot afford to pay the electric. It is a good news.
See, the government is there to help and yet nobody appreciates but complains.

As the sun gives light in the day, Meralco gives light at night. But the solar power is free while Meralco’s power is not only free but costly. That’s why our poor people whose only diversion is to watch their favorite tv show whether by regular programming or cable is deprived, though they have their jumper electricity.

Meralco’s rate should be regulated. It should not be a burden.
As they say, there will be light in the end of the tunnel.

[...] The issues appear to be directed at the general public. I, for for one, think Mr. Garcia is talking sense. What he’s saying is in fact what the general public has been complaining ever since. But we all don’t vote in Meralco. [...]

Meralco is making money more than it should be. It charges its customers the highest rate in Asia or anywhere else in the world. Those are among the heavy volleys made by Mr. Winston Garcia of the GSIS, or Government Service Insurance System, directed at the Lopezes of Meralco.

the gsis ‘concern’ for the electricity consumers is hearwarming. however, several govt employees are, up to now June 3, 2008, unable to get educational loans from the gsis.
perhaps in its zealous attempt to wrest control of meralco, the gsis forgot the people it was created to serve: the govt employees

Winston Garcia is only protecting the interest of GSIS members whose money are invested in Meralco, which unfortunately he has no power to implement his ideas due to sheer lack of numbers at the board. I believe all GSIS members should support him. Do they want their money to grow or shrink? If they want their money to grow, they should do something to make Meralco profitable so that it can declare more dividends. If Meralco remains laggard, it is only serving the interest of the Lopezes for while Meralco may be losing, other Lopezes companies supplying Meralco are making big bucks. Meralco has only become an instrument for making money via indirect billings.

I am appalled all government employees or GSIS members who are opposed to Winston’s fight when he is fighting for the interest of GSIS members.

Politics should be set aside because this is all about protecting savings and earning more dividends

The issue at hand is about government handlers vs. meralco. The context is about “lowering the the rate on electric bills.” If it has been done through the following process wala sigurong problema:

1. A lobby group complaining on high cost of electricity.

2. Congress or senate entertains the lobby group then summons all the stockholders which include GSIS, Lopezes and their proxies, NAPOCOR, BIR… etc… Opens up the inquiry… opens up the can of worms.

Unfortunately… this will not happen because the fact is that legislator wouldn’t take it… too small issue.

OTOH there are numerous conspiracy theories in the Philippine barbershops. Mga kwentong barbero:

1. Winston’s crusade is a part of the GMA and her power circles vendetta against the Lopez’s media conglomerate where they have highlighted anti-GMA’s issues, political events and scandals.

2. The linkages of Ejercitos (Estrada) and the Lopezes through beaver and erap’s dawter makes GMA’s butt jealous. Beaver should have married Luli.

3. Lopezes are funding the sisters who are lodging and feeding Lozada.

4. Just being done to divert the issue of scams and other shortages.

At the end of the day, a man with a little above the average IQ can conclude that this is not about advocacy of the government or the honor of family. It is all about clans who are oligarchs with their own interests. The Macapagal-Arroyo et al on the other side and the Ejercito-Lopez. Now what is the issue?

Perhaps we have to revisit history with the right perspective. The Lopezes got hit hard during martial law simply because they held on to their critical stance against the Marcos dictatorship, which undeniably, committed unthinkable wrongdoings.

It’s like history is repeating itself all over again. The current administration just wants to get back at the Lopezes because of ABS-CBN’s critical stance against Madam’s and family bloopers. And what’s the most vulnerable company of the Lopez Group, or should we say most vulnerable in terms of corruption come government take over?

Sometimes we have to dig deeper into the motives of people. From there, we will better understand their actions.

Guys, would like to share this link which provides very interesting insights about the boxing match between Winston Garcia and Meralco. It’s quite lengthy but it’s worth the while.

http://tongueinanew.blogspot.com/2008/05/meralco-vs-mafia.html

Lopezes after the EDSA I revolution are the new kingmakers. They use their ABS-CBN to blackmail politicians to follow the Lopezes whims, they are behind the creation of the likes of Noli and Loren and the Remullas. They are even behind the controversies plauging the Arroyo administration. Probably Arroyo got tired of it and just wanted to take the Lopezes to the drain with her. Gloria should get rid of the Lopezes before she steps down in 2010.

Mr. Garcia is not protecting the GSIS members..coz up to know GSIS members data is still not updated. If he’s really concern to GSIS members updating should be given a priority dahil empleyado ng gobyerno nabubuhay lamang sa loan. Tama na ang papogi gawin na nyo ang dapat, iupdate na nyo ang data maaawa kayo sa mga kumakayod para sa inyo.

Maaawa naman kayo sa amin na mga member ng GSIS, hindi kami makaloan sa desired amount kasi ang record namin eh 2006 pa. Unahin dapat ni Mr. Garcia na linisin ang kanyang bakuran sa GSIS, pwede ba yang mga tauhan mo jan na malalaki masyado ang sweldo gawin na ninyo ang inyong trabaho. Tapusin na ninyo ang updating since 2006. Mas masahol pa kayo sa MERALCO!

nice one dj mazon.

its plain and simple the arroyo corrupt-poration and malacanang mafia is winning in polarizing the public opinion thus evading from the real issues-widespread corruption , human rights abuses.

next issue na palulutangin ng inept and illegitimate corrupt regime ni gloria? abangan…

wala naman napapala ang taong-bayan sa mga ginagawang paghuhugas kamay ni gma etal sa mga paghihirap ng bansa. Yung gimik nila nakakasuka na and they are spending millions of taxpayers money sa ads, billboard for self-glorification image. Kailan kaya sila hihinto sa panloloko sa taong bayan? and they are now positioning themselves beyond 2010.

God save our country.

While the forest is burning the monkeys are playing in the banana trees and Winston is playing with their money. But doesn’t anybody disturb them, for it is I, not the fire who will consume them.

Winston Garcia is a trying-hard Carl Icahn whose corporate raiding schemes ended up in breaking down corporations into pieces and selling them off for profit, making huge returns for his investors.

If Garcia doesn’t know it yet, Icahn does not invest in technology companies because the main assets are the people, which he cannot sell. This is the reason many are surprised Icahn is now at the forefront of Yahoo’s takeover after Microsoft folded out of the game. And many investors are not as eager to bet on Icahn now as they had always done in the past.

We heard it from Garcia didn’t we? That he wanted to breakup the Meralco franchise into smaller areas, the more profitable ones to be sold later to his kumpadres and kababayans in Aboitiz Power’s Cebu distributor, VECO, where his relatives, (according to Perry Diaz)through Vivant Corporation, have maintained a substantial investment. Talk about conflict of interest! The unprofitable areas will probably be subsidized by government since the Lopezes are not foolish to maintain a losing business. The supposed monster that is the Meralco monopoly just transforms into another ugly beast - a cartel, with the favored cronies getting their share of the loot.

Now can anyone explain to me how this will benefit us customers?

*********
BTW, thanks, DJ Mazon for the link. To get a wider perpective on the real deal, everyone is welcome to check out that link.

The strategy of Mr. Winston Garcia in using the issue of “power rates” and the “Lopezes mismanagement of the MERALCO” is just a tip of the iceberg. In my personal opinion, there is really an inner and deeper motive why he is doing so… the power rate issue is somehow a bait to win the sympathy of the public and winning public sympathy is like hitting 2 birds in one stone… why? 2010 election is fast approaching and its very timely to win the support of the public and to generate more arsenal to outdo enemy and the Lopezes is one of the many targets because they’re influential and have the capability to endorse/support and eventually win the politicians they wanted to be… now the issue in meralco is a strategic leverage of Mr. Garcia and its Bosses to let the Lopezes agree on their demands.

Two scenarios are most likely to happen. One, if the Lopezes won’t agree and won’t give in on Mr. Garcia’s demand the pressure will goes on and until such time that Lopezes will make a counter demands. The second scenario is, if the Lopezes will agree on the demand of Mr. Garcia, then Mr. Garcia will most likely a hero to the consuming public and if this happen… then its easy to win a position in the 2010 election… maybe a senator or a vice president under the administration camp…

…that theory of mine is maybe a simple and barbershop theory but there’s a possibility to happen… consuming public be vigilant and government employees dont forget the GSIS pension plan issue.

The GSIS taking over ERC? This country surely is going to the dogs if we have more investors with such mentality.

The GSIS is a bona fide shareholder and does not fit the definition of a corporate raider. This issue between GSIS and Meralco started with Mr. Garcia wanting to take a peek at the Meralco’s books and contracts. He wanted to be sure that GSIS is getting its fair share of the profits. If Meralco has nothing to hide they should welcome a major stockholder to inspect their operations. Besides, there is no business conflicts whatsoever between the GSIS and Meralco.

The refusal of the Lopezes to accede to the request of Winston Garcia aroused his suspicions. ABS-CBN is brought in by the Lopezes intentionally to serve as a smokescreen and to muddle the perception of the public.

“Whether it is a black cat or a white cat, as long as it can catch the rat, it is a good cat.” (Deng Xiao Ping)

Maria Makiling,

I pity what is processing in your head.

Then we cannot blame Meralco to overprice because they are a private business and that is a common business practice?

So in this reasoning, let us continue paying all the losses that Meralco incurred in the course of their business.

Ang sarap naman ng buhay ng may-ari ng Meralco?

In business there is such thing as company losses and in Meralco’s buisiness belief, there is no such thing as company loss. Its all profit.

Maria Makiling, if you wish to continue paying the electricty that you did not consume, ikaw na lang ha?
Wag mo na kami idamay na ayaw sa system loss at overcharging ng Meralco.

People have the right to know, Wether the controversies hounding the Arroyo administration are true or not, we deserve to know for them investigated. This is simply a sign of democracy and freedom of expression specially when there are valid evidence.

But let’s not veer away from the topic of this blog. Are the allegations of Mr. Winston Garcia against Meralco valid?

On Mismanagement of Meralco

Mr. Winston Garcia wants a change in Meralco management because he says that Meralco is mismanaged. We all know that Meralco, as an electric service provider, like any other distribtuion utilities and electric cooperatives in the country, are strictly regulated by the government agency called Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC. This simply means that any service provider cannot just arbitrarily decide on charging customers without the approval of ERC. And what is the bible of ERC in enforcing policies in the power industry? It’s non other than the EPIRA law which was passed and approved by our legislators, who by the way are the same people who are now questioning the provisions of the law that they approved.

According to my research, Meralco received various awards in recent years, which in one way or another, can be taken as a sign of it being well managed.

- One of the Top 20 in 2007 ICD Corporate Governance Scorecard for Publicly Listed Companies in the Philippines
-2005 ECOP Grand Kapatid Winner
- One of Asiamoney’s 2004 Best Managed Companies
- Good Corporate Citizenship Award
- Asia Equities Investment Report: Top Place in “‘Most Improved Investor Relations”
- The Asset: 2002 Leader in Corporate Governance in the Philippines
- Asiamoney 2002: 3rd in “Overall Best Corporate Governance Score Among the Top 10 Utilities in Asia”

In times of chaos, there will always be opposing forces. And it is the respect for the law that keeps us from a state of anarchy. I guess before we believe the allegations being thrown by both parties, we have to do some research first on the well established laws upon which their claims are based on. EPIRA is readily available online. Thanks to google search. It just makes me laugh to watch those legislators on televised hearings as if they are not aware of the provisions of the EPIRA law. Makes me think, is this the start of election camapign using free publicity?

bamm you hit the nail in the head. Those protecting Meralco in spite of the high cost of electricity are trying to muddle the issue. The high cost of electricity arises out of the ghost deliveries of Meralco’s own IPPs which was being paid in full by Meralco. The ghost deliveries were being charged by Meralco to their customers to the tune of 13 Billion pesos as of the latest figures from the Joint Power Investigating Committees. It is defined as swindling in the law books but because of ERC it becomes a common practice “kuno” .

Jang jang…ang sinasabi kong business practice ay di lingid sa iyong kaalaman…at ang system losses ng meralco ay isa lamang sa pagsasamantala ng mga negosyante. Hindi kaila sa iyo na ang mga agricultural products from other regions bago makarating ng maynila ay mayroon ding system losses sa maraming paraan. ang karne, gulay, isda at iba pang produkto bago makarating sa iyong mesa ay dinadagdagan na ng mga system losses gaya ng paghango pa lamang ng produkto may additional charges ng ipinapasa ang mga middleman at chinese traders, habang ang produkto ay naglalakbay patungong pamilihan may additional charges na naman sa kotong ng public official along checkpoints and pagdating ng produkto sa pamilihan may additional charges na naman at bago mo mabili ang produkto halos kalahati na ang ipinatong sa orihinal na presyo.
Walang pinagkaiba sa sytem losses ng meralco na pinapasan natin because of the “business practice” now tell me ako lang ba nagbabayad ng system losses.

The real issue is not the fight between Meralco and Garcia, kasi its a known fact na laging major target ang meralco for any political purposes. Ginawa ng mga Marcoses, ginaya rin ni enrile during his senatorial campaign and now GMA is using again the Meralco for a political purpose. If GMA is sincere enough to lower the cost of electricity sana 2001 pa lang nireporma na niya power sector and if Garcia is sincere enough to be the “joan of arc” against the wall of Meralco sana hindi siya gumagawa ng mga kilos na nagpapababa ng stock prices ng Meralco kasi GSIS stockholders din ang tinatamaan.

Ang totoong isyu ay upang lalong iligaw ang korupsiyon at human rights abuses. And with their strategy nanalo sila to polarize public opinion with these issues.

Ano na naman kayang susunod na isyu ang palulutangin ng Malacanang Mafia and Arroyo corrupt-poration?

Hindi ka ba nagtataka all of a sudden masyadong makamasa ang kilos ni GMA, pro-poor kuno but in a short term basis and only for political gains.

Nauubusan na sila ng isyu at ang mga baho ay unti-unti ng sumisingaw. The COA audit on Office of the President only shows how he diverted huge amount of taxpayers money for political survival, self-glorification, bribery and alike.

May katapusan din ang lahat.

God save our country.

DJ mazon, Harry King, Dismayado,Tongue’s Wrath and Queen Hyena…
hinahagaan ko ang inyong mga pananaw at opinion at patuloy kayong magbigay ng malayang kaisipan sa mas nakararaming pilipino at laging mapagmatyag at bukas ang isipan sa bawat isyu ng ating bayan.
Ang pagpapalitan ng kuro-kuro ay higit na nagbibigay sa atin ng kaisipan upang suriin at himayin ang bawat isyu ng lipunan partikular sa mga isyung may kinalaman ang kasalukuyang rehimen.

Magkakaiba man ang ating sentimiyento at pananaw ay iisa ang hangarin natin para sa ating bansa at sana kahit paano ay maging haligi tayo ng pagbabago at magmulat sa kaisipan ng masang pilipino upang patuloy na ipahayag ang malayang kaisipan at manindigan sa mga isyu kung kinakailangan.

God save our country

Jang-jang… Di ka ba nakikinig ng news? Even ERC. the government agency that regulates Meralco admits that Meralco cannot raise its rate without ERC’s approval. And even before ERC approves the increase in rates, several hearings are conducted. The customers and other cause-oriented groups are even invited to these hearings.

The only reason why Meralco is asked to refund is because the Supreme Court overruled the final decision made by ERC which is also based on ERC regulations that are approved by your legislators. The SC changed the rules of the ballgame in the middle of the game.

Jangjang, Meralco’s last last increase in its rate was in 2003 pa. Meralco’s rates is one of the lowest in the country. Why don’t you look at the rates of other distribution utilies and electric cooperatives and see for yourself.

If you really think that the government can lower the electricity rate, think again. If you think the government can better manage Meralco, think 100 times… Look at the government’s track record. May government owned and controlled corporation pa ba na profitable? Wala na po. Kasi every profitable business that they took over was made as a milking cow.

Welcome aboard Tongue! It’s my pleasure to advertise your link. You really write well and im amazed how you get insider info. Anyway, this blog is getting really exciting.

Jang-jang, check this out to learn more about system loss practiced by all distribution utilities courtesy of Toungue…

http://tongueinanew.blogspot.com/search/label/systems%20loss

Relax lang, i sense that Maria Makiling is a gorgeous person, baka magsisi ka…

First of all, MERALCO was right to operate within the framework of its franchise. But, do not make the mistake, its business relationship with its sister company that is in question. If it says, collect to your maximum capacity whether you deliver 10% , so be it. Meralco is within the law. So what is Winston Garcia is complaining about? This problem really refers to its sister company, First Holding, which generates electricity?

The policy of 100% payment base on full capacity was enacted during the time of exPresident FVR. At that time, the nation “suddenly experience frequent brown-outs”. I always call the majority of our government’s policy as stupid and self serving. At the time electric power generation, such as coal fire was being built, numerous protest were lodges against the use of coal as source of generating electricity.

But then, our government under FVR ignored the protest. It just wouldn’t listen to the fact that coal plants produces pollutants—acid rain-contributing sulfur dioxide, smog-causing nitrogen oxides, fine particulates blamed for respiratory problems, and toxic mercury that works its way into the human food chain through eating fish and seafood, the people around the coal operated electric generation contracted lung ailment while the sea near the plant was rendered non-productive. The aquatic resources were entirely obliterated due to toxic residue for using coal.

I say the government under FVR is stupid and self-serving, short of calling the ex-president stupid himself. Corruption is within the realm of his governance, but, lets go back to this IPP in our Meralco bill. It was under his regime when the contract was approve wherein Independent power producers can collect the 100 % charges even when only 2% was actually delivered.

Imagine how grossly disadvantageous to the Filipino people the undue advantage the subsidiary electric power generation associated to MERALCO has. On a certain year, Meralco collected 3 billion pesos full charge when the actual value of electricity delivered was about 600 million! Such a sweet heart deal between two companies related to each other. And this is the infamous IPP incorporated in electric bill everyone is paying.

This is a gross negligence on the part of our government. In business, as well as in government contracts, no one is being pressured to sign or consummate the contract if one party desire not to push through. But here is the catch, why time the investigation against MERALCO at the time that the publics attention is still on the NTZ broadband scandal? Why time the MERALCO investigation at this time where 80% of the population perceives the government of PGMA as corrupt.

One after another, the people are being deceived by the government to bring its attention away from the NTZ-NBN broadband scandal. Just recently, the Secretary of Agriculture, in the person of Arthur Yap declares that there is rice shortage. For me as a private person not connected to the government, I would say, Secretary Arthur Yap, made a stupid declaration. By announcing that we will have rice shortage last May, he opened the floodgate of rice hoarding, price of rice spiraled upward, and never ending speculation.

Every year, it is a fact that we import rice from Vietnam, Thailand, and U. S. But why announce in the MEDIA that we have rice shortage in an alarming way? Consequently, Thailand and Vietnam, took the hint to raise their price from $250 per metric ton to $1,000. Is it not the duty of a government to protect its population from speculations, rice hoardings, and panic buying? However, the contrary has happen Sec. Arthur Yap yapping on T.V. and radio that we have rice shortage!

Winston Garcia of GSIS has the right to question the leadership of Meralco, as Meralco has the right to protect itself from the take over. When the vote of the absentee voters is in question, so be it, prove that it was rig in favor to the LOPEZES. If MERALCO is at fault for charging the consumers of electricity, then prove it. There is nothing wrong questioning certain provisions in the contract, if it is really gross disadvantageous to the consumers. In the same token, Meralco should and never give up in proving that the government is at fault for being “SUAPANG” or greedy, by imposing so much taxes, which resulted to high electric charges.

As an ordinary citizen, Winston Garcia seems to be a puppet of a President who has lost the credibility and respect by its people. After one scandal to another scandal committed by PGMA as broadcasted in the Media, which involves corruption, it is a fair conclusion that the ABS-CBN media, another company owned by the Lopez which is over critical on perceive corruption by PGMA’s government, has earned the ire of PGMA, and now, the retribution. MERALCO is a very good example how the lap-dog in the government strikes back at its adversaries.

Since MERALCO is an institution by itself, the lap-dogs of PGMA are too familiar of using the logic of fairness as weapon of intimidation. Mind you, GSIS has 35% stocks, while the LOPEZES has 34% stock, so the fight is on for the control. GSIS has the upper hand if it succeeds to nullify the absentee voters.

By the way, the International Monetary Funds does not want to lend the Philippine Government any more loans due to the perceive culture of corruption. I still remember way back in the year 1996 when I was sited beside an IMF representative coming from Frankfurt, Germany going to the Philippines to lent the FVR government sums of money, by the millions of dollars. I told him that as an ordinary Filipino Citizen, I suggest that he goes back where he came from, and must not lent any amount of money to our government.

He couldn’t believe it and he almost choke on his coffee when I said those remarks,
“not to lend our Philippine Government.” Naturally, he wanted to know the reason, and he ask, “why?” I said, the Philippine Government under FVR is no longer representing the welfare of its people. I said that these government are just a bounce of thieves, sort of Mafioso, who would steal what ever money it can rob.
FVR then, was doing nothing except traveling abroad, making stupid speeches about how our economy has grown, that finally, we have proven to the world that the Philippines is not a dead basket, but a robust economy, an emerging economy.

Then, one year later, the bubble burst in Asia, year 1997, the economic meltdown. Before the economic meltdown, our currency was similar to Thailand’s. But afterwards, ours is devalued at 44 pesos to a dollar, while Thailand’s currency, was 35 bats to a dollar. Almost always, our blubber mouth president is to blame. He never was able to protect the onslaught on our currency. All the billions upon billions he wasted traveling abroad should have been spend to the benefit of our poorest among poor.

And the cycle has just began, his successor, PGMA, also a blubber mouth president jet setting abroad, making stupid speeches, wasting billions of pesos, and now, what! The seven percent GNP of year 2007 just evaporated into thin air. Either PGMA steals or she waste billions of pesos as dole outs on peoples money. What is this 632 millions unlequidated cash advance by Malacanang? Shame!

With Intelligence Funds running into billions and billions of pesos, with discretionary funds, similar to Senate and Representatives pork barrel, where are they now?

With half a million dole out to each lap dog congressman who troop to Malacanang, why does PGMA now hand out to ordinary people merely a bearers certificate worth 1,000 pesos.

Today is a very memorable day. It seems, that this stupid government is now in quandary. Why, because the stock exchange fell, because there seems that the trillion and two hundred million budget approve by the lap dog executive, is but a dream. Our government, a stupid one, has never achieve collecting the revenues because there is nothing to collect. The people is so poor because of inflation. Thanks to Secretary of Agriculture, Arthur Yap, who was yapping about rice shortage.

Today, the government has raise the interest to counter the devaluation of our currency. Our government is not only classified as “SWAPANG” or GREEDY, it is also “BALLASUBAS” or a crook, because there is no way it can pay its neither foreign nor local debts. It is not only bankrupt morally, but money wise, it is also bankrupt. Our currency has close at the lowest value to the dollar at 44.10 per dollar.

SWAPPANG ANG GOBYERNO NATIN, KASAMA ANG SUPREME COURT. Napaka mahal ang bayad sa Corte ngayon, wala naman pagbabago sa serbisyo sa corte, Mabagal parin parang pagong.

The system loss of meralco is currently placed at about 10%. Since the system loss chargeable to consumer is capped at 9.5% that means around 0.5% is being absorbed by meralco itself. And, again, of this 10%, 7% comprise the technical losses or the natural losses due to heating of the wires and equipment which not even einstein nor edison could have gotten rid off esp over several kilometers of power distribution, (i should know im an electrical engineer myself…) hence, i agree, this could be accounted as operating expense (hmm…yes an engineer with some business units..)..hence could be justifiably recovered.. Otherwise meralco losses its profitability altogether and we’ll all fall back into the dark ages. Now, doing the math that means 2.5% (or 9.5 less 7) are caused by pilferers which is shouldered across the board by all consumers..too bad the ERC allowed this… Nway, Meralco should step up the campaign against pilferers and we as citizen should have active participation, since there’s no way meralco could guard the whole metro manila and the nearby provinces from this social ill.

On winston garcia, i cant see how a man who can not seem to manage well his own organization could run a much more highly-technical corporation like meralco… the last thing we need is to see the system loss shoot up the roof like what happened when the govt tookover meralco during the marcos days…

haay buhay…san n ba tayo pupulutin…

Good day to everyone,

I would like to comment regarding Mr. Jang jang personal opinion to Ms. Maria Makiling

“Maria Makiling, if you wish to continue paying the electricty that you did not consume, ikaw na lang ha?
Wag mo na kami idamay na ayaw sa system loss at overcharging ng Meralco.”

Seems he did not have a technical background on how electricty is generated and distributed. In laymans term.

Electric generation - NAPOCOR & IPP
TRANSCO - distribution
MERALCO - distribution

Part of the system loss is the heat generated by the electrical transformer when electricity is converted from high voltage to low voltage for distribution. Its simple you cannot distribute electricity without transformer. If you did not want to pay sytem loss, this means that you did not want also the electricity. MERALCO should cut off your electricity. Electricity cannot be distributed without system loss. MERALCO should make a move to decrease or improved its system loss. No system loss no electricity.

More VAT fruits:
1.Arroyo launches P1-B fund for students
2. P2-billion power subsidy program in which 4 million “lifeline users,” or families using less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity monthly, will be given a one-time subsidy of P500,
3.HB 4077 seeks to extend the law on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for another five years and allocate P100 billion for the acquisition of land and provision of support services for beneficiaries.

The filipinos are now reaping the fruits of Arroyo’s program especially the poor.
As most filipinos are good only in talking, yak, yak, the president is doing her work not by talk but work.
If and when this Meralco thing is solved expect that most people will be happy as Arroyo will surely lower the cost of this basic necessity, electricity.
As filipinos are good only in speculation and allegation without proof except our dirty mind then better let’s keep our mouth shut.

hindi naman gsis lang ang nererepresent ni Winston Garcia mga kabayan sa totoo lang dapat yata maging malawak isipan natin di na tayo mga bata,boong bayan na naghihirap ang ipinaglalaban ni Winston Garcia,mga mamayan na nagdurusa sa sobrang mahal ng kuryente na binabayaran nila sa meralco,kaya lalong naghihirap ang bayan natin dahil sa mga negosyante na mapagsamantala at lalong naghihirap ang mga mahihrap na dahil sa kanila,hindi tayo uunlad kung ang yaman ng pilipinas ay sa iilang tao lang napupunta maging ang maliliit na negosyo at wala ng pag asa na umulad dahil sa sobrang mahal ng kuryente,matatakot na rin mga dayuhang negosyate mag negosyo sa pinas dahil dyan, kung wala tayong tiwala kay WInston Garcia bantayan natin sya at akusahan kung lalabas na ginagamit lang niya ito para sa sarili niyang kapakanan at ipagkulong siya, pero kung maganda naman ang ginagawa niya at nakatutulong sa bayan na naghihrap pakiusap lang po SUPURTAHAN NATIN SIYA, tutal ganito na talga tayo eh mahilig magngangawa kulang naman sa gawa,kaya mag obserba muna tayo, alisin natin yong TALANGKA MENTALLITY natin, di na pwede yan ngayon, GOD BLESS US ALL, TY

It seems Mr. Winston Garcia is using dirty tactics against Meralco. Check out this article from Mr. Perfecto Yasay Jr., Former Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) Chairman.

Is the SEC inutile?

I read recently in one of the news dailies the challenge made by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to implement its order stopping the counting of proxies in favor of the Lopez group during the annual stockholders’ meeting of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) held on May 27.

Enrile was reported as saying that if the SEC could not even enforce the order, then it is inutile and must therefore be abolished.

I could understand Senator Enrile’s frustration. The cease-and-desist order (CDO), being an official act of government that was properly handed and served upon the respondents, is presumed to be valid. It could not be ignored, much less defied, even if certain irregularities appear on its face.

Under these circumstances, one can arguably claim that the failure of the SEC to enforce the questioned order makes it useless as the government’s watchdog against corporate wrongdoing.

But what if—more than just the irregularities appearing on the face of the CDO, because it was prepared with undue haste—its issuance was the result of unlawful pressure from Malacañang because of its undisguised dislike of the Lopezes, whom it would like ousted from Meralco? Would the SEC’s refusal to enforce its order make it inutile? I don’t think so. In that situation the SEC should be commended for not implementing a patently illegal order stemming from abuse of power.

That the Arroyo administration wants the Lopez family out of the management of the public-utility company is not disputed. Oscar Lopez strongly hinted this when he exasperatedly remarked that they be bought out of Meralco. This was his reaction to the government’s much-publicized accusation that the mismanagement of Meralco was the reason for the high cost of electricity. In fact, soon after the stockholders’ meeting, the head of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Winston Garcia, appeared on television claiming that the Lopezes will soon be out of Meralco. Thereafter, the Palace through Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita expressed unequivocal support of Garcia’s legal maneuvers against the Lopezes.

Accusing the Lopezes of mismanaging a public-utility company that has resulted in the high cost of electricity for our people heavily implies the imputation of serious offenses. Thus, it comes as a big bewilderment that the government has undercut the paramount public interest by merely filing a civil complaint with the SEC for the purpose of having its favored nominees elected to the board, instead of criminally prosecuting those responsible and immediately seeking their disqualification from management.

I question the propriety of proceeding against the Lopezes before the SEC on an issue that is essentially an intra-corporate dispute. Jurisdiction over this kind of matter has already been transferred to the regular courts.

But I could hazard a guess on why the government chose not to go to the courts: Administratively, the SEC is still under the supervision of the Chief Executive through the Department of Finance, while the courts are under the Judiciary. Pressuring a subordinate agency or official can be easily and more subtly pursued than interfering with the authority of a co-equal branch of government.

From the viewpoint of the Lopezes, it seems that they had no choice but to defy the SEC-CDO. Had they complied, they would have surely been ousted from the control of Meralco at the May 27 stockholders’ meeting. That was not acceptable. To be fined heavily or imprisoned for contempt appears to be a less risky proposition that can be vigorously fought out in the courts for a very long time.

During my watch at the SEC, I had the harrowing experience of defying the President, who pressured me to officially act in violation of the law. He ordered me to stop the investigation for securities fraud of his close friend. He also commanded me not to issue a temporary restraining order that would have prevented a stockholders’ meeting of another public-utility company from taking place.

Because of this undesirable experience, we sought, through legislation, the strengthening of the SEC as an independent agency, insulating it from political control and outside influence. While we succeeded in incorporating this reform in the Securities Regulation Code, old mindsets have made it extremely difficult for the SEC to perform its functions properly. It is like pouring new wine into old wineskins, where the latter breaks and the new wine is rendered useless.

****

The author was chairman of the SEC from 1995 to 2000. He headed the regulatory changes of the commission and initiated the preparation of the draft of the Securities Regulation Code incorporating these reforms. He is a visiting professor of law at the Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii, in Honolulu.

Source:
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/06042008/opinion04.html

It is really funny how we filipinos think. We always think beyond our malicious mind. And we throw so many allegations not within the topic.

The issue here is not about Garcia vs Meralco nor mismanagement of the franchise.
It is about election of officers in their annual meeting of stockholders. Mr. Garcia is there because he is representing the government thru GSIS which has a 33% share of the franchise.
Look, what came out in this thread,the feud between great grandparents of arroyo vs lopez trying to connect in this meralco thing, the aboitiz group trying to wrest control of meralco, the icahh and yahoo and so on and so forth.

The problem with us filipinos is, we cannot answer a plain yes or no. There is always going around the bush. Instead of going direct to the point, we try to circumvent the topic.

The issue in Meralco is the election of officers and that’s it. No more no less. No allegation beyond election.
As the saying goes
” We will cross the bridge if we are there”… or in tagalog “Ang lumakad ng matulin kung matinik ay malalim”
dahil masama ang magisip laban sa kapwa

Meralco’s defiance to Garcia’s request for corporate operations data is justified. I presume many are ignorant of the fact that the Garcia family, via Vivant Corporation, are partners of the Aboitiz group in its Cebu power distribution firm, Veco, the second largest in the country.

Meralco has all the rights to hide specific matters in operations as these fall into trade secrets. No stupid businessman would give his competitor all the info that he wants. As an investor, GSIS is entitled only to financial and other fiscal data provided in the annual stockholder’s report as confirmed by the corporation’s external auditors. If GSIS, through Garcia, suspects any wrongdoing, it should go to the SEC who can look at the books. That is the SEC’s purpose, to ensure corporate governance is up to par, at the same time critical operational secrets are kept from the eyes of rival companies. If the SEC finds merit in the complaint, they can allow Garcia to take his case to court and sue Meralco, as well as the auditors. Being a tightly-regulated industry, regular reports are submitted to the regulatory body, ERC, and all data within those papers are sufficient.

Garcia bungled his chance at revenge by elevating their corporate intramural to SEC to stop the stockholders meeting. But such infighting had already been assigned to the jurisdiction of the courts, any lawyer, like Garcia, worth his salt knows that.

Instead, Garcia takes his case to media, to the point of asking for live coverage so that people will witness how he portrays the victim’s role. That is pure hogwash. Dramatics appeal only to emotions not to intellect. If he only kept his trap shut and worked privately, he would not have dragged the price of Meralco A&B at PSE to the pits. He wouldn’t have made Meralco harden its position by threats of takeover and suits. As of today, GSIS has lost billions in that investment.

If his intentions were genuine, he could have easily (and quietly) convinced his President to order the ERC to play hardball against Meralco. He should by now also be espousing lower taxes and tarrifs if he really feels for GSIS members and the population in general.

Now, after all the drama, everyone loses - Meralco isn’t budging, the prices remain high, GSIS remains poorly managed.

I am no fan of the Lopezes, in fact, I have been advocating review of all power contracts especially those with take-or-pay provisions, as this government has promised to do, so many times in the past. Former Energy Sec. Vince Perez even vowed to do it even when he was already on his way out. What has happened since?

What we got was EPIRA that successfully hid the take-or-pay issues since it is no longer reflected in our bills. I had predicted it to become a volcano waiting to explode. But alas, we in the electricity business were not heard that time. As usual, the Filipinos only jump into the bandwagon because it is the fashionable thing to do. But hey, the problem started back in 1993.

Today, everybody is an expert in systems loss, when they have been paying that all their lives.

A little knowledge really is a dangerous thing.

On the Ninez Cacho-Olivares libel case:

Just because one is a journalist, it does not mean that you can print anything you want under the guise of press freedom. There must be fairness and truth in reporting. To not hold journalists accountable for articles which are baseless will result in chaos and misinformation. There should be accountability wherein the press can be held liable for their actions. They should always be held accountable for their false reports fueled by bad faith or malice.

Please extend my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Rudy Fernandez.

When I was still in the Philippines, I remember watching some of his movies.

Again this is a reminder to all of us that life is too short. Make the most out of it. Be nice to every one.

We will miss you, Rudy.

Ave maria santisima… look who’s accusing about mismanagement. Isn’t he also accused of mismanagement? wasting money on anything that doesn’t benefit GSIS members.

Another idiot is making a name- Reyes. He was to “go nuclear” My God, isn’t Bataan nuclear power plant still fresh in the memory of Filipino people? China is a doomed country. Very soon, Philippines will suffer calamites. why? Our wicked president is flirting with chinese communists!

what an irony. She spends millions of pesos just to cruch philippine communist insurgency but collect millions in tongpats and commisions. She wants her fellow filipino (npa, mostly peasant crying for justice) to be killed by the military, and yet she flirts and makes anomalous deals with “Chinese communists”. What difference does is have with “singkit na komunista” with “indios komunista”? none, except that GMA gets rich from Intsek

AWARDS

We can not judge a company by the number of awards it received. Most awards are based on bottom-line performances, financial journalists rarely conduct in-depth studies or investigations before presenting such awards.

Thousands of Americans went bankrupt because they believed what Ken Lay told them. They were impressed by the awards received by Enron, such as “best global company” by Global Finance, “most innovative company in America” by Fortune, etc., etc.

Enron, as a business model, was even taught in many schools worldwide. What later happened to Enron and Ken Lay are now common knowledge.

Taking cues from several sources, the people both as consumers and investors can not be too careful in rating the companies that operates like Enron.

(Businessweek – May 20, 2002 on Enron) ….. “Not only did the company’s executives manipulate markets, they misled the public and their own employees over and over again–not just about the electricity markets, but about the company’s debt and the prospects for the company’s stock as well. It’s very hard for anyone to justify taking risks when they feel they are being lied to, cheated, and deprived of essential information”.

On corporate abuses: “When you allow corporations to write their own rules in the global marketplace, which is what has essentially been the case in recent years, you will see unimaginable abuses.” (Tony Benn - Former minister of industry, UK).

We have to understand that no regulation is without loopholes. Besides the regulations, there must be a contract that binds the company morally to its customers and investors. When a company violates that moral contract and uses those loopholes to put one over its customers and investors then something is very, very wrong in the management of that company. Some would classify such companies as ENRONic.

Winston Garcia representing GSIS, a major stockholder of Meralco, has all the reasons to be leery on Meralco’s methods of operation basing on his observations that the utility company has not declared any cash dividends for years 2001 to 2007 while, according to him, the Lopez-owned sister companies are raking in profits.

Mr Garcia should first imrpove the GSIS systems before ” makisawsaw” with Meralco. It’s a cover up actually of GSIS ineffeciences. Many governmetn employee are thinking of going out of GSIS if only allowed by the govdrnment.

Unahin muna ayusin GSIS before anything else. Bayan muna!!!

Jang-Jang,

kung ayaw mong magbayad ng systems loss, madali lang iyan. bumili ka ng generator. or kung may pera ka, bumili ka ng transformer para maka-kabit ka sa 115kV line ng meralco.

dahil ang system loss ay natural na pangyayari (gaya ng pagtunaw ng yelo) kahit anong gawin nina winstong ay hindi mawawala iyan. para mo na ring pinigil ang pagtunaw ng yelo sa labas ng freezer.

sino ngayon ang sasagot niyang nawawalang kuryente na iyan? napocor or meralco or tayo? pasensya ka na, nasa batas kasi tayo ang magbabayad.

pero ngayong alam mo na ang legal na paraan para hindi ka magbayad ng systems loss, gagawin mo ba?

I agree with Dismayadao.
It’s all politics.
Manolo Lopez is the father in law of Estrada’s daughter. Nawala na sa limelight si Lozada. napalitan na ng Meralco issue. Wala ng mag iinvest sa Pinas kung laging ganyan ang nangyayari. That’s why I left that country.

Maraming makikisakay sa power at Meralco Issue. I was a former Meralco Emplyee and I worked at Inspection Division. I saw a lot of people using or tampering their metering and power services. Mostly of this people are still in politics and show business. So, kung sino pa yung me pera sya pang malakas magnakaw.

Well, I agree with JangJang. Meralco is such a GREED MONSTER! I remembered my neighbor who once caught stealing electricity (it’s Pilferage I know!). When he intends to clear up his name by paying up his balances, that GREEDY MONSTER computed all electricity consumptions of almost all electronic/electrical appliances which most of them he has not and forcing him to pay a very large and non-imaginative amount!…many of their clients already want to clear their balances but this GREEDY MONSTER never give a chance to them. Why??? Remember the SYSTEM LOSS!!!…we already paid for all the consumption of these cheaters….the money they are paying as non-imaginative compromise should go to us - payers!…that SYSTEM LOSS we are paying!!!…very GREED MERALCO…

MANG GODO,

sana nga tama ka sa iyong mga pananaw, malinaw ang mga ebidensiya at patuloy na sumisingaw ang baho ng malacanang mafia at arroyo corrupt-poration…

ang mas mahirap na mamamayang pilipino ang labis na nakakaranas ng mga patakarang anti-poor ni gloria…

hindi mo lang alam kung paano gamitin ni gma ang resources ng bansa at pagsira sa mga institusyon mapagtakpan lamang ang mali nilang pamamalakad.

ang isyu ng winston garcia vs. meralco ay isa lamang sa mga divertionary ploy ng malacanang mafia, marami ng pangako na napako si gma, at sanay tigilan na nila ang panloloko at pagsasamantala sa masang pilipino…

pagod, hirap at sawa na ang tao..pero sadya yatang mas magaling at matatag ang malacanang mafia upang malampasan ang lahat ng eskandalo, anomalya at political crisis…

may hangganan din ang lahat, walang habambuhay na kapangyarihang politikal na hindi bumababa lalo na mga lider na mapagsamantala sa kahinaan ng kanilang nasasakupan.

at higit sa lahat ang pandaraya, pagnanakaw at pagsisinungaling ang higit na nagpapahirap sa bansa.

2010 is near, and let the filipino people realize the regime of gma is the cause of the Filipinos agony and despair.

God save our country

meralco should not charge the consumers of it’s losses.. maybe they suffered losses bcoz of mismanagement. they should think of a way to avoid losses, not charge the consumers bcoz of their rotten system. tama b n saluhin natin ang kalugian ng meralco? i think it is now time to change the management of meralco..

The only way we can bring down our electricity to a competitive level compared to our Asian neighbor is to abolish EVAT on oil and energy once and for all. Then we negotiate
in lowering 100% charges by IPP for undelivered power. Systems lost should also be absorbed by MERALCO. Meralco should be vigilant and go after illegal connections. It is immoral for a company to charges its consumer for service that it did not render.

“Ang problema, na paka swapang” or GREEDY “ng gobyerno natin, maslalo na ang presidente natin.” Mawawala dow ang basic services pag tinangal ang EVAT. Bakit, yong one time na Fertilizer subsidy na 1,500 bawat magsasaka, makakadagdag ba ng ani, samantalang ang precio ng fertilizer ay 2,200 per bag at tumataas pa? Eh, kailangan ng sampung bag na fertilizr bawat hectaria. Ano ang 1,500 pesos subside, bandaid solution na naman o pampapogi?

Maganda ang pinamimigay na 500 pesos sa bawat bahay na gumagamit ng 100 KWH. Eh, one time nanaman lang yan. Pam-matagalan ba yan? De isang Band Aid solution nananaman o pampapogi.

Bakit, taon taon, billion, billiong piso ang budget ng National Irrigation Adm., eh wala naman gaanong improvement sa irrigasyon. PPPPURO LIP SERVICE, nasaan napunta ang billion, billion na budget ng National Irrigation.

Ang hirap sa Gobyerno natin, binabalasa ang budget natin. Yong nakalaan sa isang departamento, nililipat sa ibang questionableng projecto. Ito ay labag sa batas! Hayop talaga ang walanghiyang mga nasa taas.

Sa tutuo lang, na waldas na ni PGMA ang pera natin, sa kapapasyal nya sa ibang bansa, bitbit ang mga walanghiya na congresista at alepores.

Ngayon, uutang daw ng $993 million ang pinas. De si Juan de la Cruz nanaman ang kaawaawa.

Tandaan ninyo, hindi million, kung hindi Billion ang usapan ngayon. Mayabang ang Excutive Brance ng Gobyerno natin, saan ba nila kukuhanin ang One trillion and two hundred billion na budget para sa 2008. Hirap na ang taong bayan sa kababayad ng buwish na halos hindi na kayang bayaran. Ginawa na tayong alipin ng mga tiwaling namumuno sa Gobyerno.

Tama na ang mga walang kabuluhang talumpati. Hirap na ang taong bayan, gutom na ang kanilang sikmura. Puro Band Aid Solution ang pinaggagawa ninyo.

Nice to recall those days when Meralco did not learn the tricks of the trade. Power consumers were elated because meter readers do come to visit each home and read the actual electric consumption during a given period. What is good about it is that the meter reader would leave a notice as to how much electric consumption did a particular home had. Which is right as a valid reference should any problem arises in the future.
Unfortunately, this is not done anymore. Why? At present, a meter reader just sneaks up at your house premises to read the electric meter and go. How sure are we that the meter reading he did was correct or not? Is this part of Meralco’s clandestine operations to dupe the consumers of their hard-earned money? I supposed not. Otherwise, gated residences may just end up covering their electric meter with something so that any meter reader won’t be able to read the electric consumption from a distance, if only to pressure Meralco to bring back its old practice of leaving an evidence of the actual meter reading figures.

Matagal na tayong niluluto ng meralco sa sarili nating mantika. May pa yelong natutunaw pa silang sinasabi, tayo ba ang bumili ng yelo sa tindahan? Sabihin nila, dahil tayo naman ang nagbabayad ng system loss ay wala silang ginagawa para mapababa o mawala ang system loss. Katagal na ng meralco , ganon parin sila katanga kasama ng mga engineer nila. If theres a will theres a way. Ang alam lang ng mga Lopezes para makaiwas sa mga ganito ay ibugaw sa mga presidente ang mga anak nila. Sabi nga ni Manolo Lopez sa kanyang balaeng Joseph Estrada, tumakbo ka sa 2010 para mapagpatuloy namin panloloko sa mga Pilipino. Sino kaya ang presidente ng ginawa ang batas na pwede nilang i-charge sa taong bayan ang system loss…

I’ve been giving my opinion regarding several sensitive topics in the internet.

And yesterday, to my surprise, my comment was erased.

I know the policy regarding the language that we should use in our communications, whereby it should be polite and not offensive, considerate and not inflammatory.

What I am referring is comments towards our government, lease, we can be charge of inciting to sedition, which is a capital offense.

Sometimes, I cannot control myself because of the revulsion I feel towards the excesses that our uncivilized government commits against its people.

We have politicians that are beyond anything but a human. Next to the devil himself, there is no other adjective I can use.

Everyone must have forgotten by now the over priced lamp post which was costing at 1,200 pesos, was bought by DPWH by one thousand times its original price. I am referring to the Ministerial Meeting in Cebu.

We have so many sandals committed by so called “guardians of Democracy and civility”, these politicians that took their oath of allegiance to the Philippine Republic, and protector to the rights and welfare of our people, are the very ones who plunders the meager wealth of our country.

Two hours ago, I heard the discussion between Senator Enrile and other announcer how the Filipino people are being cheated by those in the Bureau of Customs by manipulating the Bill of Leading (hope I spell it right) on incoming cargoes imported from abroad. According to the International Monetary Funds, we have 137 billions worth of imports for 2007, yet only 60 billions is registered in the Bureau of Customs.

According to the broadcaster, the modus operandi of the crooks in port area is to change the items inside the container ban, change its point of origin, and under value its original price.

In this way, the Philippine Government losses tariff charges, taxes, and other fees. Imagine, for 2007, we cannot account for 73 billions worth of suppose to be items, whereby we could have raise our revenue.

While our people are suffering from basic necessities, such as high price of food items, high fuel cost, and lack of primary medicines in our public hospitals, here we see how these influential people, these politicians, these supposed to be guardians, are the ones who perpetuate such activities.

Smuggler never attempts to perpetuate their activities without the blessings of the higher ups. You have to bribe people in the government all the way up.
We are considered as number 8th most corrupt nation in the world, and yet, he do not hear any out cry inside the supposed “AUGUST CHAMBER” of our house of Representa-thieves.

Senator Enrile has mentioned about Land Reform as an exercise in futility, because according to him, rice production did not go up in spite of land given to the farmers.

What he deliberately omitted is the fact that after the government has given the farms to the recipient farmers, the government should provide irrigations, cheap fertilizers and insecticides, hybrid seedlings, and provide technical support. These, they failed.

All these have been deprive to the farmers. And now, Senator Enrile has the gull to state that rice production is lot lower when farms are distributed to tenant farmers.

In the radio station, Senator Enrile defended the “Open Sky Policy” of our Government. He may be,as he mentioned, once a lawyer of Soriano’, who operated Philippine Airlines, and my reply is “so what”.

By opening the Philippines without precondition to other airlines, you are doing dis-service to our own Flag Carrier. Why? Because, with out restriction, the foreign airlines can pick up passengers going, say the America, and other destination originating from the Philippines. In other words, you have now open a direct competition with Philippine Airlines on other destination.

In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Airways, is the first choice by their government. Their airline should carry full capacity, before other airlines, especially Philippine Airlines, takes on passengers bound to the Philippines. Is that not an example of Protectionism?

Why install an “Open Sky” policy in our country? Senator Enrile, in spite of his experience and expertise, still, he should be prudent enough to accept the fact that he could be fatally wrong in his decisions and could result to a grave consequence, both economically and morally.

Katmandu for example never bothers to enact a policy of open sky policy; yet, it has more tourists, if that is what Senator Enrile is implying, more than the Philippines, because it has more interesting sites. There is Mount Everest.

When Senator Enrite was newly elected as Senator, in his present capacity, he belongs to the minority group. Then out of nowhere, he jump ship and transferred to the Majority, under PGMA. Right after that, he was given a logging concession to thousands of Hectares in the province of Samar by the then head of DENR, MR. Mike Defensor.

The forest which was in the first place, converted as forest reserve by FVR, and Ex president Cory Aquino, suddenly was awarded to Senator Enrile as logging concession.
Fortunately, the NGO’s and religious groups succeeded to over turn this nefarious undertaking by Senator Enrile.

And this is the reason why I use libelous words, and defamatory statements because these people I mentions, sometimes does not deserve respect.

NGO Staff

I just want to share this opinion to both Mr. Lopez and Mr. Garcia. You have the same feathers so why not flocks together. Maawa naman kayo sa mga Pilipino. Gumawa naman kayo ng mga bagay na makakabuti sa mamamayan. Lahat tayo ay mamamatay at magsusulit ng mga ginawa natin dito sa lupa. Kaya hanggat may panahon pa giumawa tayo na mapapakinabangan ng mamamayan

Gustong maging magalang

Ms. Apple

Robbie “Juday” Tan,

Mababaw na halimbawa ang yelong natutunaw na binayaran mo na from source. Ito ang tinatawag na “technical loss” as referred to the that funny TV commercial.

Ang technical system loss accounts for about 70 to 80% loss ng swappang na Meralco PERO what about the remaining 20 or 30% na nawawala, NAKAW PO ITO(PILFERAGE) AT SARILING GAMIT NG MERALCO!

Pati ba naman yung nanakaw sa Meralco at yung sariling kuryeneteng gamit ng kumpanya ng Meralco( isama na din nating yung ibang Lopez-owned companies na maaring discounted or libre na sa kuryente) eh babayaran ng consumer? Dito sila dapat magbawas ng singil sa mamamyan.

Yung “technical loss” im sure may paraan ang Meralco kung paano mapapababa ito pero TAMAD sila gawin kasi pinayagan na nga sila ng inutil na ERC na singilin ang lugi sa taong bayan.

Meantime, pwede naman itabi muna yung pagbawas sa technical loss kasi nga ay kumplikado ang technical loss.

Pero mga kaibigan, malaki ang magagawa ng Meralco sa mga NAKAW( pilferage) at pansarili nilang kunsumo sa ibabawas ng singil sa kuryente. Wag na po tayong magbulag-bulagan dito. Malaki din ang kasalanan ng ERC at maaring nabusog sila sa “lobby money” ni Lopez para payagan na ang taong bayan ang magbayad ng losses na hindi dapat ikargo sa consumer.

Kailan lang ay nagbaba ng singil ang matakaw na Meralco, kasi daw ay bumababa ang bili nila sa electricity spot market. Goodness! 10% lang ang binibili nila sa spot market, gaano ba karami ang binibili nila sa Lopez-owned IPP’s? Double standard ang kita nila dito for sure!

i don’t understand why a news blackout is necessary. is it because drilon is an employee of one of the biggest companies in the philippines? is that how powerful the lopezes are? if so, then i am more sorry for our country than ever. they take command over everything.

to make myself explicit, this is a tragedy. kidnapping has always been a tragedy. and i feel for ces drilon and her crew. i feel for their anxious families.

but how are their lives more important than those priests, children and everybody else that are kidnapped here in the philippines? remember reverend bossi? wasn’t his case made VERY public in 2007, especially by abs-cbn???

Meralco charges its customers for system loss therefore there is no sense for them to improve their distribution system. For Meralco to say that there is no way to improve power system losses is not true.

1.Stop power pilferage.
2.Implement system power factor correction by installing capacitor banks, phase shifting transformers, etc.
3.Avoid overloading distribution lines
4.Improve transformer quality for lower core and copper losses: and avoid overloading.

Those are just basic steps to lower the system losses. Other more sophisticated methods through planning and technology are possible.

But why improve when the customers pay for the losses? Even an antiquated system full of power leaks can still make money for the owners.

DJ Mazon,

toungueinanew blogspot is technically correct but politically biased.

Im sure the guy’s from ABS-CBN.

While I was on the “pilferage” paragraph, I cant help but LAUGH on what is suppose to be Meralco’s bid in pursuing electrical tampering like in the squatters area, it was suggested that the police and the govt in general are not doing anything to pursue those who are tampering. Hahaha, wait a minute? Whos business is to provide the electricity and who earns from it……MERALCO PO!

Meralco should primarily pursue those who are cheating on electricity because electricity is what they sell. Its their produce. Police should come in only when ask by Meralco for security assistance from bully pilfers.

I drop off my seat when a statement in that blog says “Govt should be the one who would absorb the pilferage for they are doing nothing to catch the thieves and too much taxes are imposed on the electricity” God damn! Sheer stupidity on you DJ for truly believing in this blog which is worthy of a space in “Tik-tik” tabloid.

People compare Winston Garcia and the Lopezes. We must remember that the crucial question here is no longer who is a better manager; but who is honest, and who is cheating.

robbie naman. sa dami ng nabasa natin at nadinig regarding this issue, dapat alam na natin ang karamihan dito. yes, the analogy of the yelong natutunaw is not enough to explain the systems loss since technical loss lang yun. pero naman. kahit tindero sa kanto, maiintindihan na ang ginamit na kuryente para i-provide and product o service ay talaga namang kasama sa presyo ng itinitinda. ikaw ba kung may business ka ng pagawaan ng kahit anong produkto, hindi mo isasama sa presyo ng tinda mo ang ginamit mong kuryente? syempre kasama!
ito namang nakaw, palagay mo ba kaninong responsibilidad yan? yes, responsibilidad ng meralco yan pero lahat ba ng wires at poste nila ay mababantayan nila? e para saan pa ang pulis? ang pagnanakaw ay isang social problem na dapat harapin ng gobyerno. nagbabayad ng buwis ang mga negosyante at tayong mga pilipino at tungkuling ng ating gobyerno na proteksyonan tayo!

1. The EPIRA calls for the privatization of NAPOCOR, why do the opposite with distribution companies?
2. Distribution only comprises a small portion of the Meralco bill. Government should focus on removing burdensome gov’t taxes and support indigenous ways of power generation. Meralco operates only in Luzon and acts within the bounds of the law why single them out?
3. Winston Garcia’s family runs Visayan electric co and it is clear that his intention of dividing the Meralco franchise is to have some given to the Aboitizes. Would they be better managers than the Lopezes who survived the 105 years of running Meralco? Is the government really out to lower power rates or just taking Lopezes out of the power industry?
4. The GSIS management should devote its time understanding the issues of their beneficiaries and not on meddling in the affairs of well-meaning businesses founded on the virtues of integrity and malasakit like Meralco. If Garcia thinks GSIS’ investments in Meralco won’t earn his required revenue, then divest and not resort to bullying and throwing his weight around as board member of only 2-months.

Isa lang naman po ang nais kong itanong sa isyu. Talaga bang gustong protektahan ng gvernment ang interest ng nakararaming Pilipino o isa lang itong paraan para sirain ang taong hindi na la makuha ang suporta? Kung tutuusin, hindi lang naman meralco ang nagloloko. Nasa sarili pa nga nilang bakuran ang mga taong dapat ay tinatanong. Malinis ba si Winston Garcia? Hindi ba’t hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa nalilinis sa isyu ang GSIS? Ayusin niya muna ang mga dapat unahin. Huwag siyang magpaka hero sa issue na ito dahil kahit kailan ay hindi siya magiging hero. Sa tingin ko, lumalabas pa rin na iniipit ng gobyerno ang mga Lopez. Kung totoo man na may nakukuha sila sa mga tao, siguro naman hindi ito parehas ng nakukuha ng mga corrupt na pulitiko. Para tuloy gusto kong isipin na gusto lang nila na sila na lang ang makinabang sa lahat ng pwedeng mapagkakitaan. Takot lang sila siguro na malamangan pero okey lang sila kung ang makalamang. Bakit hindi natin ibalik ang tanong na pinupukol natin sa meralco sa ating corrupt na gobyerno.

jang-juwang
hindi trabaho ng meralco ang maghabol sa mga magnanakaw ng kuryente. trabaho ng pulis iyan. kung maraming nakawan ng kuryente, ang ibig sabihin ay hindi ginagawa ng pulis ang trabaho nila. ang rcbc ba ay naghahabol sa mga taong nagnakaw sa kanila? di ba pinaubaya nila sa pulis iyon. kung iyan ang gusto mo, ei bigyan ng police power ang meralco para sila mismo ang manghuli at ipa-electric chair ang mga magnanakaw ng kuryente

al jeratso,
kung ayaw mong madugasan ng meralco, matuto kang magbasa ng metro nila. madali lang iyan, kahit grade 3 kayang magbasa ng meter. paturo ka sa meralco branch, baka swertihin ka pa kung pogi/maganda ang meralco employee na magtuturo sa iyo

Here’s the great news for the Filipino People that we are in support to HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin and he’s MERALCO’s Economic Saviour including all Filipino People.

A new law was signed days ago increasing personal income tax exemptions and exempting minimum wage earners. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Mareng Winnie Monsod is naturally against it, being an economist. But I say, any tax relief is welcome, since people really hate taxes, although taxes in other countries ay mas higher pa rin at mahirap takasan ang “BIR” nila (e.g. Singapore-35%, Europe-50%, US average Americans earning about $80T/year- 30%). As Benjamin Franklin said” But in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Kahit na mukhang populist-appeal-to-voters by 2010 ang dating ng law na ito. Although hindi naman na pwede tumakbo si Gloria. Sa aming pagtanong-tanong, nagulat din kami na there are also many government employees pala who are earning less than P328 a day (Metro Manila) and way below minimum wage. Example, drivers, clerks, janitors. Dapat lang kasi ang taas ng presyo ngayon walang pinipili-ke mababang empleyado ng private/gov’t.
And another good thing actually from this law signed by Gloria is the increase in personal tax exemptions when those that will pay income taxes will file income taxe returns to BIR. The increase of exemption is from P25T to P50T regardless of whether single, married etc. For those with 4 dependent children that’s P200T exemption agad.

Lopezes must surrender their Assets to HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin because he held evidence for MERALCO’s debt from Marcoses and Mr. Lopez will be punished by the King if he assumed Office in replace of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo. Remember Filipino People, HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin of no. 133 Rizal St., San Sebastian, Hagonoy, Bulacan is the Sole Signatory of the Eternal Mother Account.

dapat natin malaman n ang mataas at maling pagsingil ng meralco ay apektado lahat tayong pilipino. mali b n ibaba ang singil ng meralco? ang issue dito ay ang mataas n singil ng kuryente at hindi c garcia or lopez. if ever n may kpalpakan din c garcia s GSIS well, kasuhan kgad sya kung may sapat n ebidensya.. hindi puro hearsay nnmn.. in my own opinion mdmi politikong oposisyon d2 s vox populi syempre kahit n anong negative news or issues ay cguradong ang gobyerno lagi ang sisisihin nila. bato bato s langit ang tamaan wag mglit.

basta para sakin baguhin ang maling pagsingil ng koryente s ating mga electric consumers. ala ako paki alam kina lopez at garcia.. MERALCO baguhin nyo sistema nyo!

On the average, 12% of our total bill goes to Meralco for distribution charges. This means that if your bill is Php 4,000 only Php 480.00 goes to Meralco.

If Winston Garcia and Malacanang really want to lower electricity rates, why not look at the bigger components of the electric bill like generation charges and the Value Added Tax (VAT)?

Btw, even if NAPOCOR lowers its rates but continues to buy/source electricty at higher price then we, taxpayers, eventually pay for the loss.

Hirap sa gobiernong to, puro pogi points lang ang gusto pero wala talagang puso.

What GSIS under Garcia taking over Meralco?

Garcia taking over Meralco will only double the electric cost, Meralco will end up like Philippine National Railroad a dumping ground for politically connected idiots.

Reform first NAPOCOR before Meralco is taken over by another group of Ladrones. I prefer the present Ladron managing Meralco the Lopez are moderating their greed.

The Power Industry is very sophisticated business. It’s a collaboration of technical, financial and juridical principle. ERC should have not been formed if such industry is somewhat simple. Such government agency regulates or controls Meralco charges being passed on to the consumers. The framework guidelines of ERC are patterned from the EPIRA law and the Anti-pilferage Act that was enacted by our government.

All the electric distribution utilities in the country are like robots, commanded to perform within the law and being regulated by ERC.

If every centavo a utility collects from its customers comes after the approval of a government regulating body, how can we say that an electric utility is overpricing?

Why is Meralco accused of overpricing if it was not allowed by ERC to increase its distribution charge since 2003?

Electricity cannot travel from Generators, Transmission Lines, and distribution facilities to our individual electric meters without technical system loss. If a car needs tires, electricity needs system loss so that it can travel on the wires and transformers. Why should we refuse to pay technical system losses if it also serves as the medium of electricity to reach our electric meters?

Its very painful for us consumers to realize the fact that we pay the losses incurred by an electric utility from pilferage. Does a distribution utility have vested powers to arrests pilferers all alone? If yes, there is no sense that DU’s (distribution utilities) should pass on such losses to the consumers. Unfortunately, pilferage eradication is a joint effort of the consumers themselves, local government, national police, trial courts and DU’s. Why should we pinpoint Meralco alone to shoulder such losses?

Why should we prefer eating a burger inside a fully air-conditioned mall compared to a burger stand situated outside? Both are selling the same burger but their services vary. We want to be served better that’s why we pay extra money for value-added services and convenience. Why was Meralco allowed by the law to pass on to its consumers its own use of electricity? Because their consumption is part of the resources they invested just to serve their customers better.

These realizations are enough for you to understand why the law allows Meralco to collect system loss charges, you might think that Meralco is not doing anything at all to minimize such losses because at the end of the day, they can pass all these charges to their consumers. For your information, the law only allows Meralco to recover its 9.5% system loss to its consumers. Meralco will shoulder losses above such limit. Can Meralco abuse its customers with system loss charges given the said limit? That is a big NO NO! Every percent that exceeds the said cap is estimated to cost a huge Billion Pesos to be shouldered by Meralco.

We all want to pay lower cost of electricity but unfortunately, the issue has become an avenue for political grandstanding with matching blaming games just for the so called pro-consumer GSIS President and administration allies can earn public sympathy so that they can push and justify their personal vested interests. The government’s questioning of Meralco rates is a gesture of questioning themselves. They are simply questioning the charges they have allowed.

If there is a body or entity that has violated the law that yielded the surging cost of electricity, its no other than our own government. They impose heavy royalty taxes on our very own natural gasses being used by generators to produce electricity. This is a clear violation of SECTION 35 of EPIRA LAW. They even match its price to the rising imported oil. Ginigisa tayo ng gobyerno sa sarili nating mantika. To wit:

“SEC. 35. Royalties, Returns and Tax Rates for Indigenous Energy Resources. – The provisions of Section 79 of Commonwealth Act No. 137 (C.A. No. 137) and any law to the contrary notwithstanding, the President of the Philippines shall reduce the royalties, returns and taxes collected for the exploitation of all indigenous sources of energy, including but not limited to, natural gas and geothermal steam, so as to effect parity of tax treatment with the existing rated for imported coal, crude oil, bunker fuel and other imported fuels.

To ensure lower rates for end-users, the ERC shall forthwith reduce the rates of power from all indigenous sources of energy”.

Let us altogether appeal for the removal of government’s illegal collection of royalty taxes on natural gasses. We should not let these traditional politicians take advantage of our ignorance. We should take time to explore and learn the over-all picture of the issue before we make our stand.

It was during the regime of GMA where the EPIRA was effective…binigyan ng kapangyarihan ng EPIRA ang ERC para gumawa ng Philippine Distribution Code…Dito nglalaman ang issue ng System Loss…According to the PDC-System loss is categorized as a)technical, b)non-technical at c)administrative..sa administrative napapaloob ang utility use.

Mismong ang National Transmission Corporation (a government-controlled corporation) ay sumisingil ng SYSTEM LOSS sa mga electric utilities…technical ang usapin sa kuryente, na mismong c Mikey Arroyo, ang chairman ng house committee on energy, ay hindi maiiintindihan ng isang upuan lamang.

Mr. Garcia should first clean his surroundings..Marami ng government workers ang naghihirap dahil sa computerization program na gnawa sa panunungkulan nya..AT lugi na ang investment ng GSIS sa MERALCO dahil sa sarili nyang kagagawan…Let other suffer while i’m in my comfort zone ba ang motto ni Mr. Winston Garcia… Mr. Garcia,most of your members are public school teachers..maawa ka sa pension fund nila..

May hidden agenda man si Winston, we’ll know about it later. This is the issue, Meralco and the power rates. Sobra naman ang taas talaga. If Meralco will not behave, I would suggest that the Government should and MUST take over all utility companies including Maynilad. In case the government has teeth and means to do it, then lets opt to open the power industry to an open market. Para mabawasan ang MONOPOLY ng Meralco. Like PLDT, ano na..dyan ang Bayantel. Pati yang Skycable dapat i-boycott na rin yan..

“I just want to share this opinion to both Mr. Lopez and Mr. Garcia. You have the same feathers so why not flocks together. Maawa naman kayo sa mga Pilipino. Gumawa naman kayo ng mga bagay na makakabuti sa mamamayan. Lahat tayo ay mamamatay at magsusulit ng mga ginawa natin dito sa lupa. Kaya hanggat may panahon pa giumawa tayo na mapapakinabangan ng mamamayan”

those who think that the lopezes and mr. garcia have the same feathers and should flock together should think twice. or more.

it is not the lopezes’ fault that the price of electricity can barely be lowered. only 12% of what we pay goes to them. the lopezes are not known for resorting to dirty tricks. those who are complaining that only meralco should lower their shares, please do your research. there are other factors involved (i may not enlist them here, but i suppose you watch/read the news to keep yourselves updated). if ever they could lower their rates, it would only be minimal, since they are not the only ones who should do their share in lowering the bill.

if there’s anyone who does not deserve to be in a position of power here, it would be mr. winston garcia. here are a few reasons why:

- He finds it easy to accuse other people of not being able to manage what they have when he cannot even manage GSIS properly. what kind of leader/manager in his right mind would use GSIS’ pension fund to purchase a Juan Luna painting that would cost an arm and a leg?

- He talks bull**** (pardon the term, but that’s the kindest term I have for his behavior). The way he behaved in the stockholders’ meeting (which was televised, in case you haven’t been watching) and how he claims that he can lower the electricity bill by 20% should speak for itself.

Here are the real solutions to the GSIS-Meralco squabble:

1. Review the EPIRA provisions and enact reasonable rate cutting measures specially on system loss provisions c/o our Congress (manned by our BRILLIANT lawmakers who question their OWN bills/laws for free publicity as HEROES of the poor specially nearing the elections). Can anyone still possible swallow what Enrile have to say? Can we review our history and remember what role he played during Martial law? People are getting more and more aware about social injustices being committed in our country by those who have the power. The question is, until when will they stay in power? Maybe they forgot that there is a more powerful being out there just watching their everymove and will deal with them in due time.

2. Remove the 12% EVAT in the electricity bills (since PGMA claims that we have surplus tax collection, why not take it out altogether)

3. Investigate and prosecute those who are guilty in the NApocor Mafia responsible for overpricing coal purchases (NPC purchases the coal requirements almost double the price from IPP coal purchases)

4. Remove royalties and taxes from natural gas that are being used by selected IPPS (Dude you know we are paying almost 100% of royalties and taxes for natural gas produced electricity which discourages our country from using our indigenous energy source - only in the Philippines!)

5. Mr. Winston Garcia should stay out of how Meralco runs its business! For one, Garcia family, via Vivant Corporation, are partners of the Aboitiz group in its Cebu power distribution firm, Veco, the second largest in the country. This is a serious case of conflict of interest. Second, he dragged Meralco stock share price to record low because of his constant and baseless accusations. This is a huge loss considering the investments of GSIS members whom he whimsically maneuvers as if all the funds are his own. He should clean his own backyard first and address the problems constantly faced by our senior citizens and teachers who rendered true public service.

With regard to system loss, it could be compared to a live pig. When you buy a live pig for example from Rizal, it weighs 100 kilograms. When you transport it to Manila and weigh it after the travel, the pig’s weight will be 95%. Why? Because of stress.

Then when you have it slaughtered, the blood and all other parts of the pig that can not be used will be taken out and that will also lessen the pig’s weight. You can compare those losses with the technical loss component of the systems loss charges.

Meanwhile, if the person who slaughtered the pig gets small parts for personal reasons, that is what you call pilferage.

Even if you collect the all the blood, parts, and the diced meat, it won’t constitute the weight of the pig before.

Electricity used by a household is also broken down into smaller voltages. You can not connect directly to the generating plants since that will blow up your house.

Bottomline is, technical system losses is an act of nature. It’s like defying the law of gravity.

I pitty those who don’t understand the real concepts behind system loss and who immediately subscribe to emotionally charged hear-says.

About “pilferage” or the non-technical component of system loss, what was the system loss level of Meralco in 1986 under Martial Law and governement control? It was a whopping 21%! And what was the system loss level last year? It was 9.65%, the lowest in 27 years! Shouldn’t we fee quite glad for this fact? Can we still trust the government in running a utiltiy company?

With regard to WESM power purchases, no matter how you look at it, the private independent power producers always offer the lowest price per kilowatthour followed by Napocor and with WESM offering the highest price. Meralco, i shouild say, opted for the optimal mix for its energy sourcing.

If there is something wrong about our power industry, take a look at the solutions that i’m offering, they’re all our government’s fault!

Hey, Bloggers,,

The real issue here is the HIGHER COST OF ELECTRICITY MERALCO IS CHARGING TO ITS CUSTOMER no other else. In order not to confuse the consuming public, please stick to the real issue and not to muddle it. The real culprit of this high cost of electricity are the following:

1) SYSTEM LOSS which include unethical charging of MERALCO’s own use of electricity.
2) The pension fund which is non contributory on the part of the MERALCO’s managment and staff. Cost of which is being factored in the System Loss.
3) Onerous deal between related parties (i.e Lopez own IPP)

As a CPA, given the change to issue and Auditors Report I would have been qualified MERALCO on immoral and criminal of doing business.

All the accusations of WINSTON GARCIA are true, and these can be challenge by anybody in court.

As for the removal of tax on electricity. This is not possible at this time, as this is one of means of generating revenue that ultimately redound to the benefit of the public.

Those who blindly supporting MERALCO, please open your eyes. There will come a time that if no action taken that will prevent MERALCO in raising electricity rate, you will also suffer the same fate with the poor consuming public. PLEASE DON’T EMULATE MERALCO FOR THEIR GREEDINESS.

Jang-Jang,

I don’t read tikitik tabloids. Why, are you an avid fan of it?

Don’t get too comfortable with the idea that “ignorance is bliss”.

Konting aral lang dude…

As the head of GSIS, Winston Garcia becomes the natural representative of the institution in all functionalities.

He is not only the caretaker of the GSIS funds but he has to find ways to make the funds grow in order to meet the increasing requirements of the members. When Garcia invested in Meralco, a blue-chip stock, he was not gambling with the government employees’ future.

It will be impossible for a manager to achieve anything if he has to ask every member for his or her opinion. That is why there is a board of trustees to resolve all important issues. The employees should voice out their opposition if they are against investing in Meralco.

Once an investment is made, it is the primary duty of the board of trustees to monitor performance of the stock. For several years, according to Winston Garcia, GSIS did not received dividends from Meralco and it is his duty to investigate whether Meralco is a “true-blue” stock.

When Meralco dragged its feet in showing Garcia the company books, Garcia became suspicious and in the process later he discovered several instances of possible irregularities in the operations of Meralco. Bad news against a company always brings its stock price down but that is something nobody can help. Garcia, representing the GSIS, was just exercising the right of a major stockholder in protecting its interests.

Back in the minds of many, there is that feeling that the Lopezes took advantage of the “take-or-pay” clause and use the public consumers’ money to finance First Gas Power Corporation. If brought out publicly, it can be a very serious accusation of corporate dishonesty.

While our Senate raised hell over ZTE where an alleged commission of less than 6 billion pesos was padded onto the project; but according to Congressman Villareal, approximately 19 billion pesos collected by Meralco from its customers for undelivered/unused electricity was paid to a Lopez-owned power company that had limited or no generating capacity; yet our vociferous senators from the opposition chose to close their eyes and did not even squeaked.

Many people seem to have regarded Meralco as the ultimate authority on electric power generation, transmission and distribution. The distribution system operated by Meralco are decades old and many sectors are antiquated; the only visible modern improvement is their computerized collection system.

With the advent of High Temperature Superconductors, power system losses can be reduced to practically zero. Transmission cables and transformers using superconductors are emerging and to state that there is no way to eliminate system loss is simply deluding the public.

But, then, why should a power distribution company improve its system when its customers can be made to pay for all the losses plus the profit for the owners and the age-old power system will still be there to make money for another hundred years.

If Mr. Winston Garcia sincerely and really cares for the investments of the GSIS members, he should have considered very carefully the repercussions of his attacks to the company where he is investing on. Now, GSIS members lost just billions of pesos when the Meralco share price dropped to P37 from as high as P120. Makes me want to think that these attacks are deliberate with an end in mind of bringing the share price down so that GSIS can buy more shares at a lower and command majority control of the company.

By the way, “take or pay” contracts of generation companies is a public knowledge. Remember, we had no choice but to swallow these contracts during the power crisis under President Ramos’ term.

Now, let us not compare padded costs from the “nabulilyasong” ZTE broadband deal with that of alleged ghost deliveries simple because they are not of the same nature. It’s just a flawed comparison.

Payments for undelivered power are governed by the “take or pay” contract which was initiated by our government and therefore is legal. Is there any legal contract that justifies huge kickbacks from the ZTE deal? And for making such flawed comparison, does stealing a small amount of money compared to billions make the former act less of a crime?

As what conrado de quiros said, right demon (meralco) wrong exorsist (w. garcia)

There are two major issues here: 1) concerns the investment of GSIS (out its members’ contributions), and 2) rates being charged by Meralco from its consumers (which is also similar with the charges made by all electric coops). While the GSIS investment concerns only its members, the Meralco rate (and all power distributors) concerns the entire electricty consumers.

As a GSIS member, I appreciate Winston’s concern over non-declaration of dividends by Meralco. He has all the rights to know the financial status of the Company for him to determine the reason why. Likewise, being one of Meralco’s major shareholders, GSIS thru Winston has also the right to voice out its opinion on how the power rate should be computed. Winston represents a sizeable chunk of the society while the Lopezes represent only their family.

this blog seems to have a axe against people who tell a side against what the Inquirer sells. let me try for the nth time to post:

meralco’s rates, contracts are all within the review of the ERC. if there is something amiss, nasecore and their ilk will point it to the ERC.

people who expect garcia to champion the cause of lower power rates will be sorely disappointed. he has just supported the 12% VAT on power sales, 12% VAT on gas sales and the royalty tax on gas. I pity the people fooled by this politician who has up to now, never justified the transfer of the gsis accounts from 777 branch landbank to 94 branch unionbank. except that unionbank is owned by his family and clan mates - the aboitizes. the same aboitiz who steered napocor from 19986-1991 and led the country into 8 hour daily blackouts.

ding estrada,

as a cpa you should know that meralco’s own use of electricity is factored in as cost of sales which is not unethical. systems loss is factored into their cost because it is provided by law.

the pension fund is part of the balance sheet. i do not know how the cost is reflected in their operations but i believe that it forms part of operating expenses and not of cost of sales.

onerous deals are ones where meralco pays for more for the same amount of power they buy such as those that they get from the wholesale power market versus those that they get from the lopez owned independent power producers.

you got it all wrong. when meralco was handling production, transmission and distribution we were alright. now that we have napocor and erb/erc and epira which have no added value to the production, transmission and distribution of electricity we are paying for middlemen - more than 50% of our kwh charges go to them, the reason why our electric bills are shooting off above the roof.

gsis thru garcia invested in meralco the government employees’ hard earned contributions. this was a good move considering meralco is blue chip. now that he is not getting the returns he wants then he should get out of meralco. only an idiot would continue to invest in what he calls a losing proposition.

as to the operations of meralco, leave it to the lopezes. they’ve been there for the longest time. they know how to run the company. give them back the production, transmission and distribution. take out napocor and erb/erc from the equation, they are useless anyway. review the epira and provide detailed guidelines on what can and what cannot be charged back to the consumers. everybody happy (except gloria).

please do not join the bandwagon without learning what it is all about. garcia is part of the board of meralco. as a director i find it difficult to believe that he has no part in whatever decisions were being made by the management of meralco. unless he is an idiot.

Robbie tongueinanew Tan

Meralco should lead the search for pilfers, isumbong nila sa pulis pag nalaman na ng tangang taga-meralco na may nagtatamper, Ganito dapat.

Yung suggestion mo na dapat pulis ang manguna sa hulihan ng mga pilfers. Asan ang kukote mo pre? Hindi trabaho ng pulis at gobyerno ang manguna sa hulihan ng tampering, dapat isumbong ng Meralco sa pulis na huhuli sa nagnanakaw ng kuryente, naiintindihan mo ba?

DJ Mason,

Dude, one-sided ka masyado, wala bang magagawa ang Meralco sa pagbaba ng kuryente? Malaki. Alam mo ba kung ilang percentage yung nakukunsumo ng “technical loss”, “pilferage”, “Meralco’s consumption”‘ na kasama sa system loss? Alamin mo muna dude ha?

Wala pa yung mga pension ng retired Meralco employees na kargo din ng mga consumers.

Basahain mo yung Meralco billing mo, WALA DOON!

Ito ang “hidden agenda” ng Meralco dude.

Magbasa-basa ka pa bata.

i read alex magno’s article in phil star re meralco’s pension fund, a non-contributory fund. tama ba na pati pension fund nila charged sa consumers as MOE? P2.8Billion in 2007! that’s abusive mgmt practice…

a blogger wrote…i don’t care if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches the rat!
i don’t care about winston or lopez, all i know is that a monopoly is such a pain in the A_S!

that 12% puts additional peso sign to our bills & it’s heavy, too. (considering we are we still charged for taxes for every commodity that we buy when our income/salaries are already deducted with taxes.) but as far as i understand it, meralco can only cut down electricity rates to a certain extent. i think the napocor has to reevaluate their prices more. charging for the system loss is understandable. but both meralco and the government can work together to resolve this so as to prevent illegal power connections & pilferages. & mr. garcia needs to clear issues under his office first before posing for superhero acts over Meralco’s issues. For all we know, his party might have other interests in indulging into this issue. Sana all the government heads & service providers act according to their code of ethics and for the advantage of the country’s economy & above all, for the welfare of all the filipino people.

My God, is there really nothing else anymore than this senseless banging od Garcia on Meralco? He seems to have nothing else to do.

But how about the claim of teachers that they, in addition to the 10% increase, need more salarie4s because their net of about 11000 Pesos, plus all their perks, bonuses and cash gifts, is not enough for a decent life?
How about the millions of “normal earning” Filipinos who have to work longer, harder and less comfortable but with net income of op one third of the 11000 of teachers? Is their decent life, their foods, insurances and other expenses cheaper than for teachers?
No matter if teachers, or government employess in general, earn enough, first they should also think about and compare their income to that of the majority of Filipinos who mainly got a wage increase of 5 Pesos per working daym making about 120 Pesos a month. While 10% of 10000 basic salary is 1000 a month.
If teachers would press so much for improving their teaching as they do for pay hike, maybe RP graduates would not be counted as some of the poorest educated in Asia.
Therefore, teachers should let the selling of goods to students to those people that only can dream of a net income of 11000 Pesos plusplus and a stable lifetime job, cheap insurance, cheap housing loans, cheape tuition for the children etc. etc. etc. Be fair.

HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin could make to resolve all problems encountered by the Filipino People and Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo is still making money without back up because she knows that your Good King will resolve to guarantee it and he hold strong powers to control money globally. He paid US$ 110, 000, 000, 000 Philippine Financial Debt in the World Bank Group sometime December 2004 and former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo fooled her people that the Filipino People has still national debt while in reality Filipino People and the Philippine Islands was already CLEARED from this debt in the world.

MERALCO must be ceded business control to HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin of no. 133 Rizal St., San Sebastian, Hagonoy, Bulacan including Philippine Airlines, Banco De Oro, Metrobank, Petron, Shell, Caltex, BPI, Ayala Lands Co., Glorietta, SM Holdings, SMC and many other local corporation in the Philippine Islands for being a Sole Trustee of all Business Corporation loaned by Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos including its all government agencies.

Pres. Marcos as documentary proof already in records in the UN has shown that these multinational corporation was been shouldered by his certified deposits and HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin hold authenticated papers showing all debts of these business corporation and government agencies in the Philippine Islands.

HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin must held control over MERALCO and we are strongly suggested to the Filipino People that HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin of ASBLP Group of Companies and Bank of ASBLP and of no. 133 Rizal St., San Sebastian, Hagonoy, Bulacan has financial strength to control and to ease tensions and problems over Philippine Electricity because of the Financial Back ups he had.

HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin must be took control over GSIS for the full financial protection of the worth dying government employees.

Sa mga minamahal naming mga mambabasa, ibig ko pong sagutin ang mga ipinahayag ni G. Ongpin na pinapangalawahan kong may katotohanan una sa lahat ay masasabi kong ito’y hindi isang biro kundi maliwanag na katotohanan kung ang sinuma’y nais magbigay ng pahayag tungkol sa bagay na ito’y mangyari lamang na kailangang mabasa ito ng mga mamamayan sapagka’t ang mga papeles at ganitong impormasyong idinedeklarang huwad ng mga malisyoso’y sana’y pag aralang mabuti, ang kayamanang ipinagbilin kay Haring Anthony Santiago Martin ng Hagonoy, Bulacan ay nagpapatunay na ang buong mundo’y nagdudusa na sa kahirapan sapagka’t hindi na nila magagamit ang naturang kayamanang ipinaglaban ng mga ninuno natin sa iba’t ibang digmaan; ang mga kayamanang ito’y isinalin lamang kay Haring Anthony upang malaman na siya’y napagbilinanan lamang na ang tunay na may-ari’y ang taong bayan kaya malakas ang loob kong sinusuportahan ang puntos na ito.

DJ,

I laugh all the way to the restroom while reading your “pig” example as comparable to system loss. The “melting ice” is quite more compelling.

I’ll comment on your “pig” example. The pig and we are talking here of a “whole candid pig” being delivered to consumers. Dont it ever touches your senses that consumers dont buy the whole pig and just the part that they will need or consume?

The reason why so many consumers are mad at Meralco is that they are paying the whole “pig”,which some of its part they didnt consume. The consumers feels at loss in this set up.

But Meralco is the Man to ERC thru its Epira law. The company is protected. Dont you smell the huge “lobby money” of Lopez while Epira is being written?

Poor consumers!

Ang buhay ay parang horoscope….

Ito ang komento ko…..(pasensya na at ako lang ang natatanging nagkomento para gamitin ang wikang pambansa)

Lopez: Kailangan magsubmit ng kaukulang report o audit sa press o sa kaalaman ng lahat ng tao para malaman ang standing ng Meralco. Italakay ang lahat ng nilalaman nito para sa lahat at para na rin kay Winston Garcia. Hindi maaayos ni Judy Ann ang problema.

Garcia: Alalahanin mong may share ang GSIS sa Meralco. Parte ka pa din ng korporasyon kaya huwag magbitaw ng maaanghang na salita na ang Meralco ay isang ganid na kompanya dahil ikaw ay isang miyembro na kinabibilangan ng Meralco. Pinapakita mo na may sarili kang galit sa mga Lopezes ng dahil na rin sa impluwensya at malakas na kapit sa gobyerno lalung lalo na kay Gloria Arroyo.
Huwag masyadong icareer ang imbestigasyon laban sa Meralco ang gobyerno ay bumuo na ng komite para dyan. Tumutok sa mga problema ng mga kasapi sa iyong departamento at iyon ang GSIS. Marami rin ang mga issues laban sa iyo Garcia kaya doon mo itutok ang iyong atensiyon.

Sa gobyerno: Alam nyo na ang gagawin nyo sa bayang Pilipinas. Nasa kontitusyon yan na naritipika noon taong 1987. Hindi ko na pwedeng iisa-isahin pa. Gamitin ang inisyatibo.

Para sa lahat: Huwag mapanghusga sa lahat ng bagay. Ang dapat gawin bantayan ang lahat at maging masinop sa lahat ng mga gawain at ang mga issue na ito ay alam natin na napakahaba ng magiging proseso ukol sa imbestigasyon. May NBN-ZTE scandal, fertilizer funds scandal, election protests na kasalukuyang nakabitin pa rin sa sandigan bayan at korte suprema na dapat sya ang uupo para sa isang posisyon ng taong 1998 o 2000. 2008 na at ilang eleksiyon na ang nakalilipas ay wala pa ring desisyon. Tayo ay magmasid at maging isang responsableng indibidwal sa ating bansa.

1. Actually, if you look at it, MERALCO is just a collector of NPC , TRANSCO and the government (sa sangkatutak na taxes from generation, transmission to distribution of electric power).

2. Kaya cheap ang electric power sa ibang bansa dahil they are using cheap power sources like Nuclear Power. Takot tayo sa Nuclear Plant, peru don’t we realize na halos napapaligiran na tayo ng mga bansa who are into Nuclear Power.

3. Kaya cheap ang electric power sa ibang bansa dahil subsidize ito ng kanilang gobyerno. Dito sa atin ay kabaliktaran.

4. Kaya cheap ang power sa ibang utilities o’ cooperatives dahil mas madalas wala namang kuryente. Bakit ba dito sa Manila ang karamihang industries? the reason is QUALITY ELECTRIC POWER. Let the government take over the management of MERALCO and see what will happen.

5. Bakit ba gumagastos ang gobyerno sa nang sangkatutak sa pagtravel sa America .Para ba mang-hikayat ng investors ? eh bakit binabastos nila yung mga andito na?

Before Mr. Garcia even delves into MERALCO, he should first check his own backyard to see what is happening.

My parents are both GSIS members who are already retired. My mother got her pension in lump sum a few years back. My father opted for the monthly. Unfortunately, my father died one year after his retirement. So my mom applied for survivorship and for the e-card.

We have been receiving the monthly survivors pension for almost three years, when, at the height of Mr. Garcia’s campaign against MERALCO, the pension came in two weeks late. The next month, the pension did not arrive.

Until now, we are waiting for the pension cheques. Where are they? Why is it that GSIS is not working properly? Are they too busy working their asses off just to run after MERALCO? Why does not Mr. Garcia first fix the inefficiencies in his own office, whence there are a lot of complaints from the GSIS members themselves that the GSIS is not quickly responding to their needs?

Mr. Garcia, we hope that you fix the problem in the GSIS first. The queues for services are long, and people are already fed up. Don’t waste your time running after MERALCO.

DZ MAZON,

Mr Garcia has the legal right to look into the operations or bussiness of Meralco, did you know DZ MAZON that GSIS is major stock holder of MERALCO?

Jang-Jang says:

DJ Mazon,

toungueinanew blogspot is technically correct but politically biased.

Im sure the guy’s from ABS-CBN.

Wrong. I’m an electrical contractor who has been in the energy industry for 22 years. My previous company supplied the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, and another one I also worked with was an awardee of an IPP contract. I eat, drink, and breathe electricity.

I am also familiar with electricity pricing of many countries, which, if you care to do just a little online research, would tell you systems loss of 9.5% is well within global standards. You’d be surprised that many rich nations charge even higher systems losses!

The big difference is the price of generation. Not in distribution.

A competitive plant elsewhere in the West charges about 7.5 US Cents per kilowatthour. In the summer of 2007, prices in WESM shot up to about TWO DOLLARS. THIRTY TIMES the global standard! And that’s not even connected to Meralco yet. WESM is basically 80% NAPOCOR, 19% Meralco and 1% others.

Clearly, it is government who is at fault here. EPIRA was enacted by this regime to: 1) unburden NAPOCOR of its humongous debts, 2) privatization (via PSALM) to encourage competition, 3) the creation of a powerful and independent regulator (ERC), 4) all for the ultimate purpose of bringing down electricity cost.

What did EPIRA achieve in all these objectives? Nothing. NAPOCOR remains the biggest debt-laden gov’t agency. PSALM has been awarding gov’t assets basicaly to the same groups - Lopez and Aboitiz, so again, a failure in creating a competitive field with new players joining in. ERC independent? Powerful, yes but independent, no. All charges to the last centavo had been approved by government via ERC so I find it foolish for government to be bitching about issues with the Lopezes when all it needed was to look in the mirror. ERC is a phone call away from Gloria’s hotline. On the lowering of prices, EPIRA was a dismal failure altogether.

What EPIRA achieved though was to hide the take-or-pay charges NAPOCOR in Ramos’ regime had contracted, it now forms part of generation charge. Now who is charging the people a generation charge for “ungenerated” power? This is a way, waaaaay bigger systems loss, for crying out loud.

May I remind you, too, that electricity pilferage has been legislated already as a crime, Meralco doesn’t have police power but I’m sure had this power been given to Meralco via EPIRA, many rich people, congressmen included, will be hauled to the courts by Meralco. When criminal prolioferate, blame the law enforcer not your witness, even kindergarten kids know that.

It’s good that this blog has raised the awareness of the consumers against the vested interests that come into play behind electricity pricing. Judging from majority of responses here, it has come clear that government has reneged on its obligation to serve and protect its people. It continues to remain clueless or act stupid despite decades-old complaints of foreign investors that energy costs are main contributors to our invisibility on their radar screens.

After finally taking its first attempt to address the problem, it sends one of Meralco’s competitor to attack it. If only government has put its might behind ERC and not via GSIS, the reforms would have been swifter, more transparent, and highly acceptable to all.

Now Jang-Jang, either you have not read my whole blog entry or you didn’t understand it.

Here it is again: http://tongueinanew.blogspot.com/2008/05/should-we-pay-meralcos-systems-loss.html

Or for better understanding the industry, read this, too: http://tongueinanew.blogspot.com/2008/05/meralco-vs-mafia.html

It seems that quite a number of people agree that there is nothing wrong if Meralco regularly contract say 10 times their franchise area energy requirements from First Gas and make their customers pay for the 90 per cent of the undelivered power ….. just because such practice is permitted by law! It’s wonderful to have millions of milking cows.

The nature of anomalies may differ; but, an anomaly is an anomaly and the lawmakers should look into all business practices that are blatantly unjust to the consumer public.

Ref. to your article of Veronica Uy “Customs chief gets P5.3M for meeting 2006 target”, http://www. inquirer.net (6/30/08), may I say that something is wrong with the Lateral Attrition Law, in the sense that the P500 million reward money wasn’t equally distributed among the customs personnel.

That’s always the problem in government. Those who are already receiving higher salaries are the same people who get the biggest bonuses and the ordinary drivers get the least of the pie. Why is this so? The answer has a bearing, I supposed, on the bigger responsibilities that top customs officials have on their shoulders.

But while these officials from the BoC and the BIR are getting not much in terms of monthly income plus allowances from the government, they are still obliged to do their duties as public servants, even without any extra incentives. Otherwise, they can just pack up and quit the civil service. I’m wondering if they have ever thought of sharing some of their (BoC officials) rewards to the victims of the recent disaster that killed at least 700 people and those millions displaced by typhoon “Frank.”

Besides, I do think there is a need to rectify some of the provisions set forth on the Lateral Attrition Law by making it fair to all those who are supposed to receive the rewards.

jaycab Says:

Before Mr. Garcia even delves into MERALCO, he should first check his own backyard to see what is happening.

My parents are both GSIS members who are already retired. My mother got her pension in lump sum a few years back. My father opted for the monthly. Unfortunately, my father died one year after his retirement. So my mom applied for survivorship and for the e-card.

We have been receiving the monthly survivors pension for almost three years, when, at the height of Mr. Garcia’s campaign against MERALCO, the pension came in two weeks late. The next month, the pension did not arrive.

Until now, we are waiting for the pension cheques. Where are they? Why is it that GSIS is not working properly? Are they too busy working their asses off just to run after MERALCO? Why does not Mr. Garcia first fix the inefficiencies in his own office, whence there are a lot of complaints from the GSIS members themselves that the GSIS is not quickly responding to their needs?

Mr. Garcia, we hope that you fix the problem in the GSIS first. The queues for services are long, and people are already fed up. Don’t waste your time running after MERALCO.

***************************************

Maybe the delay in pension checks was caused by the GSIS investment in Meralco that yielded no dividends according to Garcia. If so, the more reasons for him to check on what is wrong with Meralco.

Twisted tongue,

Thank for the info but 9.5% is too huge in totality that Meralco doesnt care to “unbundle” to its crictics like Garcia.

Youre right, I REALLY DONT UNDERSTAND why Meralco has the stomach to charge the public with the company’s electric consumption costing in hundreds of million, Retirees pensions, pilferage( they didnt have the drive to pursue on these pilfers, its paid in systems loss) and treating the meter deposits as Meralco’s income.

I say your right, its the fault and greediness of the some govt officials and MERALCO owners themselves.

Birds of the same feathers!

To bloger Al Jeratsu,

Please, don’t take it personally, the core issue here is the hight cost of electricity no other else. To infuse issue on GSIS affair is equal to muddling the issue. For a mature and professional commnentator you should stick to the issue. Don’t confuse peope who are following up the issue.

As for the tounge twisted, Saudi Arabia where i worked as a finance manager in a power and water service provided company NO such thing as SYSTEM LOSS is being charged to our electricity bill here. I’been paying my electricity for the past 20 years. It barely increase and simple bill issued by the Saudi Electricity Company. It show only the kilowatts consumed and actual rate. No other charges. Happy to say that the Saudi Electricity Company, a private company is not as greedy compared to MERALCO.

Mr. Estraza,
While the bill indicates only the kwhr used, it doesn’t mean you are not charged with systems loss. It is technically inherent, and no electrical distribution system is without it. And as sure as there is sand in the desert, your supplier’s pricing structure already includes it in the distribution cost. To do otherwise isn’t sound business acumen. The same thing with your water company. You know that of course, you are a finance manager.

Now, as to the single line item in the bill, it is what we had experienced here, too. Only the kwhr consumption was reflected in the bills…until EPIRA. The same congressmen who are in the forefront of class suits against Meralco today are the same ones who crafted the law that allows Meralco to charge up to 9.5% SLC. The unbundling was a commendable feature of the legislation BUT its purpose was dishonest in the fact that while it LOOKED like the bill is more transparent, it also LIMITED what items can be shown on the bill. The bigger “rider” to your monthly payments, which is the TAKE-OR-PAY charges by Napocor’s IPPs, which is about HALF of the Generation Charge, is INVISIBLE in the bill.

Jang-Jang,
I am with you on that. If you have the goods on Meralco, then I encourage you to file it in ERC or the courts. I understand, however, that NASECORE has already done that.

I have been an advocate against TAKE-OR-PAY charges contracted by NAPOCOR with its IPPs and also against exorbitant systems loss charges by distributors as early as Pres. Ramos’ time. I had been an advocate LONG BEFORE EPIRA WAS SIGNED INTO LAW.

Not many really understood it then, Enrile was in fact a lone ranger. Me, a voice in the wilderness. Now, some have been enlightened and they speak like experts!

On Mr. Juuan C. Kawawa’s

5. Bakit ba gumagastos ang gobyerno sa nang sangkatutak sa pagtravel sa America .Para ba mang-hikayat ng investors ? eh bakit binabastos nila yung mga andito na?

You might have been referring to the French businessman, Hubert d’Aboville, who is also the head of the European Chamber of Commerce who was dressed-down by Gloria Arroyo’s allies in the Senate. Hubert is our competitor and an energy expert, too. One of his electrification projects was to install solar panels into 18,000 homes in Masbate and like many foreign businessmen operating in the provinces, they were harassed by communist rebels and about P10M of cables and equipment were burned after failing to pay revolutionary tax. If it was an electricity distributor that was installing the panels, you can be sure it will be charged to systems loss!

The French company, funded by a P1.1BILLION grant by the French Gov’t has stopped all works until the Phil. Gov’t can secure their worksites. Now you know why very few investors are coming in, compared to Vietnam, for example. Our gov’t continues to woo investors and practically beg for foreign aid but once it’s here, we push them to leave.

Law enforcement everywhere is a dismal failure, it contributes to the high cost of electricity. Cable thieves, jumper tappers, and meter temperers should be apprehended by the cops, and those assets by utility firms should likewise be guarded.

Failing to do that, no new players in the electrical industry are arriving soon, leaving us to the mercy of the same faces of the Aboitizes, Alcantaras, and Lopezes.

To all bloggers who insist their bitterness in the GSIS issue and squeezing it to the Meralco issue, BRING IT TO A DIFFERENT BLOG VENUE and focus on the issue of Meralco, ERC, Napocor and Epira.

Now Meralco partially brings down their price on their own initiative without “hiding” under the skirt of their enforcer ERC, only shows of their GUILTY FEELING by succumbing to public pressure.

Winston Garcia’s tirades on Meralco have produced fruits beneficial to the people. Assuming Meralco is a different issue that must be carefully addresed.

I just wonder why some bloggers here are up to their teeth in defending the system loss which can be compared to the PORK BARREL of the legislators, LEGAL BUT CAN BE MANIPULATED.

Dear Lolo Jang Jang,

Matanda na nga po kasi hirap na po kayong umintindi ng mga binabasa nyo. Mahirap po yan, baka di lang sa mata ang problema nyo, baka more of reading comprehension.

Also, regarding the pig analogy for system loss, i assume kumakain po kayo ng “buto ng baboy” pag bumili kayo sa palengke kasi po lolo, kasama po sa binabayaran natin yon pag ikinilo kahit hindi yung buong baboy ang binili natin. Para simple po, parang ganoon po ang system loss, binabayaran kahit hindi napakinabangan. Sabi nga ni Juday, nasa batas po iyan, RA 7832 or the Anti Filferage Act of 1994. Eto po, baka sabihin nyo lolo na di po ako nag-re-research:

REPUBLIC ACT No. 7832
http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1994/ra_7832_1994.html

Section 10. Rationalization of System Losses by Phasing out Pilferage Losses as a Component Thereof . - There is hereby established a cap on the recoverable rate of system losses as follows:

(a) For private electric utilities:

(i) Fourteen and a half percent (14 1/2%) at the end of the first year following the effectivity of this Act;

(ii) Thirteen and one-fourth percent (13 1/4%) at the end of the second year following the effectivity of this Act;

(iii) Eleven and three-fourths (11 3/4%) at the end of the third year following the effectivity of this Act; and

(iv) Nine and a half-percent (9 1/2%) at the end of the fourth year following the effectivity of this Act.

Kung gusto nyo po pababain yung recoverable cap for system loss of all distribution companies like Meralco, aba e dapat sa Kongreso kayo umapila sapagkat sila ang nag-apruba ng batas na yaan. Meralco is the wrong tree to bark on, tama ba yun?

Ayoko ko rin po ng mataas na bill na bayarin sa kuryente. Pero dapat alam natin kung sino ang dapat sisihin. Gusto nyo samahan ko pa kayo lolo sa kongreso, mag rally tayo….

It’s useless to argue with someone who don’t have an open mind to facts. Sige po, panalo na po kayo lolo…

mr. jaycab… i symphatized with you on the delay of your mom’s pension checks.

there are million pensioners in GSIS and of course,clerical or computer error or mail delivery maybe the reason for the delay but that is easily correctable at once and no need to panic.

the point is, we always whine and got high blood for minor things. and as usual we go to the top or head for the blame.
just like GMA,every thing that is happening in the philippines is her doings and she’s the target of blame.
remember that Gloria is only one of the many government executives. we have the senators, congressmen, cabinets, governors, mayors. what i mean to say is… go after them and not Gloria.

just like Garcia, he is just representing GSIS,the agency in meralco as stockholder and we blame him for the delay of your mom’s pension checks.
What is the relevance?

i have also a retired teacher sister and never heard her complained about her monthly pension checks, though there are also delays. but she can wait.

we should stick to the issue and not try to connect one from the other like a puzzle.
if it is Meralco issue, let’s finish the Meralco thing, if it is GSIS, then let’s solve the GSIS problem. one issue is different from the other.
much more, don’t make speculation or haka haka.

1.Tanungin naman natin ang gobyerno tungkol sa kanilang ’system loss’ - taon-taon ang laki ng kinakaltas na tax ng gobyerno sa ating sweldo, pag bumili tayo ay may tax pa rin, kabhit sick leave natin ay tinatax- peru ang tanong, magkano ba sa mga taxes na ito ang bumabalik sa atin? kung ang Meralco ay may 9.5 something na System loss eh baka sa gobyerno ay baka Total at a loss tayo?

2. Noong nakaraan election, yung isang mama dyan ay may papunit-punit pa ng Meralco Electric bill. Abangan si Winston sa darating na Election! Hay naku!

Simple lang naman ang issue dito.
Gusto ba ninyo ng murang kuryente?? OO o HINDI?
Kung OO, pwes manahimik kayo at suportahan nalang ninyo si Garcia sa kanyang ginagawa.

Kung HINDI, edi mag unahan kayo sa opisina ng Meralco at doon kayo bumili ng yelo.

Twisted tongue,

Well said.

You mentioned that Napocor’s take-or-pay charges was not detailed in the Meralco Bill.

Questions are: When did Meralco have the authority to look into Napocor’s books? Are they sister companies?

Maybe you should rephrase your statement: Lopez-owned IPPs should be reflected in the Meralco billing’s generation charge as Meralco is also buying about 40-45% of its supply from its sister companies.

I’d like to hear from you about this? Pls educate me on this if what I say is inaccurate.

DJ,

Your saying that I should bark on the legislators to bring down the cost?

Then why did Meralco recently were able to bring down their cost wherein before the public discovered their greediness, they were petitioning to ERC for an increase in the kwh charges? Does the public outcry irritate Meralco?

Being private, Meralco is entitled to sales profit and public shares. The govt may regulate and “protect” some interest like the technical loss but Meralco makes the call on their benefits that will fill their huge tummy

Try asking a retiree from Meralco so you know what broils inside the company.

Do not rely on news or blogspot from allied companies of Meralco. They’ll defend it at all cost because its their daily grind iho. Or your one of them iho?

FROM JANG JANG >> “Then why did Meralco recently were able to bring down their cost wherein before the public discovered their greediness, they were petitioning to ERC for an increase in the kwh charges? Does the public outcry irritate Meralco?”

ANSWER >> The rate reduction was attributed to a reduction in generation cost and systems loss charges. The reduction was DUE MAINLY to the low prices obtained from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) wherein the cost of energy that was sourced from the WESM in May 2008 was among the lowest since the market opened in July 2006. BOTTOMLINE, the overall cost of customers’ bills was reduced due to lower GENERATION CHARGES via WESM and not because of Meralco’s costs. Meralco simply reflected this reduction to the bills. Lolo dude, you have a lot of catching up to do in understanding the industry before pretending to be an expert. Tama yan, paturo ka kay Tounge, madami kang matututunan sa kanya.

FROM JANG-JANG>> Being private, Meralco is entitled to sales profit and public shares. The govt may regulate and “protect” some interest like the technical loss but Meralco makes the call on their benefits that will fill their huge tummy

ANSWER>> purely hearsays, people will likely to believe if claims are well substantiated and backed up by proofs

FROM JANG-JANG>> Do not rely on news or blogspot from allied companies of Meralco. They’ll defend it at all cost because its their daily grind iho. Or your one of them iho?

ANSWER >> I’d rather believe in factual news than just hearsays. Sorry dude, true blue kapuso ito. Why, are you part of the fat payroll of GSIS like Elamparo? Anyway, GSIS got all the money to spend right?

.

Let’s all support the move for VAT Zero rating for electricity. This will surely benefit us as consumers since this will premanently reduce our bills. Para mabawasan naman yung buwis na kinukurakot ng mga sindikato!

Jang Jang

For your info:

NPC generation rates cost more expensive than Lopez IPP rates. You can dispute this if you want but be sure to provide a data, not just all talk. Also consider the inconsistent rates of NPC that changes every hour compared to the Lopez IPP rates which are fixed.

NPC plants are farther than Lopez IPP’s. The farther the distance, the more expensive is the transmission charge.

Summing it up, NPC rates are more expensive than Lopez IPP rates in the aspect of generation and transmission charges.

You sure you want to pay more expensive rates from NPC rather than your so-called “sweet heart deals” rates huh?

Generation charges which is the most expensive among the charges and is being just passed on by Meralco to their consumers. It means that distribution utilities dont earn a single centavo from generation charges they buy from the generators when they sell electricity to their customers. Meralco is just being paid by the consumers for the distibution or delivery of power through the distribution charge.

System loss is actually a small portion of generated electricity produced by power plants. It can be called as generation loss. Such loss is not a loss at all because it can be considered as a raw material to deliver electricity. It is the energy that carries the electricity that is being delivered to the customers- the technical loss and the administrative loss (company consumption).

Why do you question all the distribution electric utilities from passing such losses to its consumers if it is instrumental for the delivery of their electricity?

Why should let the distribution utilities shoulder the system loss / generation loss if they are not earning from generation charges? If a generation charge is plain a pass through then why oppose passing through of system loss charge?

Net revenue derived from distribution charge even such is doubled is too small that it can’t even match an equivalent value of the total system loss, which only represents the small part of the generated electricity.

Given all these rationalizations, if the irrational governmnent will let the distribution utilities shoulder all the system losses, all distribution utilites will be bankrupted. The most expensive electricity arises when there is no electricity at all- when we have to source electricity from our own generators

Tougeteisted,

Please do not comment base on your speculation only.

I’been paying my electricity bills while staying in Saudi Arabia for the past 20 years. I’ been monitoring my electricity bill on monthly basis. As i said there is no system losses or other charges that footed on my bill. Our a/C’s are working non stop 24 hours a day. The electrici company (SAUDI ELECTIC COMPANY) here is not greedy as compared to MERALCO. For 20 years, I have been paying 0.030 halalas equivalent to 0.36 centavos per kwh. I can send you the copy of my electricity bills just to prove it. Nevertheless, my information is enough to inform anybody that MERALCO is commiting an economic crime to the Filipino people. It is their GREEDINES that we are suffering for high electricity cost. Perhaps, maybe the culture of the Saudi Company is better that the Filipino companies that makes the big difference when it comes to greediness. PITY to those who blindly supporting MERALCO. It’s eighter they have vested interest in MERALCO or they are just plain MORONS

The main reason why the “Take-Or-Pay” should be abolished is because the utility companies can play magic with the numbers. This can be illustrated by the following hypothetical example.

Assuming Napocor generation cost is double that of other IPPs; say 10 Pesos and 5 Pesos, respectively.

Assuming Meralco’s total requirement is 2000 megawatts. So, it contracted 1000 megawatts from Napocor and and paid 10 Million Pesos.

For the remaining 1000 megawatts, Meralco then enters into a contract for 2000 megawatts with affiliated or sister-owned IPPs. Out of this latter contract only 1000 megawatts(50%) will actually be delivered, since this practice is allowed under the “take-or-pay” clause. So, Meralco paid another 10 Million Pesos for the contracted 2000 megawatts.

Adding the two payments, Meralco then collects from its customers a total of 20 Million Pesos instead of 15 Million for the required 2000 megawatts, equivalent to to 10.00 Pesos per KW (the same as Napocor generation cost with no savings for the customers).

The affiliated IPPs made an extra profit of 5 Million Pesos from the energy of 1000 Megawatts which was NEVER intended to be delivered.

Now, we do not know whether Transmission Charge is based on the actual power delivered or also on the paper contracts. The Transmission Charge now is a whopping 22% of the Generation Charge; and if we add the System Loss Charge to it, the total is almost 40% of the Generation Charge. Transporting crude oil through pipelines may come out to be cheaper!

No one is saying that Meralco and the Lopezes are engaging in these unethical business practices but the existence of a “take-or-pay” clause certainly puts the consumer public in a very, very disadvantageous position.

looks like several people like to discuss the subject using zero knowledge.

cheaper electricity in saudi than in philippines? estraza, isnt it obvious? is 10 million barrels a day not obvious enough for you?

on the so-called sweetheart deals. ayorn man, the government has 40 such deals, the last one was the IMPSA deal which nani perez took point in. all such deals are subject to govt regulation and scrutiny. since all these take or pay deals are still with us, we can assume they are above board. if you believe otherwise, you can always go to the nearest court and file suit. abolish these take or pay contracts with all the private power plant investors and the country will be back to the 8 hour daily blackouts circa 1992.

allan, gusto kong murang kuryente kaya hindi ko susuportahan si garcia na puro palpakis ang mga pinagsasabi

mang godo, if garcia has credibity, no problem. however, I have several relatives who are public school teachers who were unable to get any loan from the gsis since april 2008. looks like winstone has pocketed their money and is now gunning fo r a senate position to escape his failures

robbie tan, we have to find out whether it is Garcia that pocketed the GSIS money - malversation; or, it is First Gas et al that pocketed Meralco’s money that in turn declared no dividends to the GSIS investment.

One thing clear is that Garcia made a bad investment in buying Meralco shares; no dividends means no loans/pensions. Maybe the GSIS members are willing to accept Meralco shares in lieu of the monthly pensions and hold on to it, hoping that Meralco pays dividends regularly.

Anak ng tipaklong, Winstong Gracia for Senator??? Kawawa naman ang Pilipinas kung madadagdagan pa ng mga trapo sa gobyerno.

The government’s harassment of Meralco is just a piece of a huge puzzle with Garcia as its henchman. Sana atupagin na lang ng ating gobyerno ang matinidng krisis sa ating bansa. Ang dami ng naghihirap.

Robbie Tan,

You are really a MORON, the higher price of oil, has nothing to do in the cost of electricity in Saudi Arabia. You do not know what you are commenting. For your information, the price of oil in 1991 before the gulf war was only $20 per barrel, since then we are enjoying 0.03 halalas per kwh until now. It never gone up unlike the greedy culture of MERALCO. The Saudi Electric Company is a publicly listed company in Saudi. It is not control by the the government.

If I have something tangible benefits derive to prove to you or to MERALCO, I can present documents (billings for the past 10 years). Nevertheless, all your comments are purely speculative and when it comes to court it will have no bearing. Stop depending MERALCO, and don’t infuse other issues. Stick to the real issue and present real, reasonable arguments back up by documental proof. PITY on those blindly defending MERALCO misdeeds, the curse of poverty and hardship will fall on you. MERALCO is like a sheep on wolves clothing. IMULAT ANG MGA NABUBULAGAN NINYONG MATA.

Mang Godo,

I am a Congressman but you are dearly penetrating to put your sympathy to Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo well that’s it Mrs. Arroyo is not a sinner but she’s an implementor of this kind of sin because you are also a sinner. Meralco must be stopped for putting hike of electric bills because Gloria has behind of GMA remember and who do you think is behind of these price hike? She like Cory Aquino and Fidel Ramos a worst ever evil Presidents in the Philippines had taken over Meralco and we had files that Cory Aquino has claimed US$ 50 B during her time and FVR had taken also US$ 100 B while GMA had taken US$ 110 B all deposited in Bank of China account no. 4456353333 but we further disclosed this matter because HM, King Anthony S. Martin has taken and ceded full power of authority to claimed these assets these evil people taken from Meralco not only that GMA had secret share in Petron worth US$ 300 B, FVR - US$ 200 B and Cory - US$ 80 B and where is it now? It is placed by the World Bank Group to the hand of HM, King Anthony S. Martin. So you better to shut up for supporting GMA she’s an evil like Cory and late Original FVR.

GMA means G is for Garcia, M is for Meralco and A is for Arroyo. Those people who supported Evil President Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo is like an evil also. We never be taken our Pork Barrel because we know that GMA hates us and we never expected to receive these blood money given by the people and we are waiting for the reward to be given by HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin and we know that GMA is continuously engraving Php 970 Quadrillion Treasury Bills and US$ 890 Trillion Treasury Bills without back and she wanted these engraved fake bills including all circulating Philippine Treasury Bills nationwide be guaranteed by HM, King Anthony S. Martin. How ridiculous is this lady former President.

estraza, before calling names I suggest that you look at where saudi gets their power from. and to calm down or risk having a heart attack.

does saudi have geothermal plants? hydro plants? coal plants? nuclear plants?
solar plants? what type of power plants does saudi have?

then I suggest you look at the fuel the saudis use to produce electricity before saying that oil has nothing to do with their energy prices.

then look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘moron’.

We have more than 100 Congressman who employed in the House of Representatives and we both monitored Former Pres. Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo who sticked tightly in Malacanang Palace and HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin who stayed in no. 133 Rizal St., San Sebastian, Hagonoy, Bulacan and we compared both Head of State and we conclude their differences GMA is waiting her kidnap-for-ransom allies to abduct HM, King Anthony S. Martin while HM, King Anthony S. Martin is waiting for the Bankers to go direct to his house in Hagonoy, Bulacan because he wanted to release these funds used by all Financial Institutions worldwide such as World Bank Group, IMF, US Feds, FATF, OPEC, IFC, BIS, UNICEF, UNDP, other Top Agencies worldwide and all Prime Banks worldwide including all Multinational Corporation worldwide and GMA is still engraving Php 980 Quadrillion and US$ 895 Trillion, as per relayed info given to us by our Intelligence, in BSP in Quezon City and elsewhere without back up she did this thing because she aspired HM, King Anthony S. Martin will be abducted by some renegade soldiers of Abu Sayyaf, NPA, MNLF and MILF who secretly connected with GMA and we have counted now in House in support to HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin more than 100 House of Representatives and we’re been divided into two 70% for HM, King Anthony S. Martin and 30% for GMA whenever HM will IMPLEMENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT we will fully thrown our support to GMA and we will put her in more legislative inquiries because we learned that she is no longer Head of State anymore. We have a copy of the Last Will and Testament given by our allies in the United Nation Resident Office in Makati City and we urged people to liberally fight our right to CLAIM these funds entrusted to HM for HM is a Trustee of the Filipino People’s wealth used by the world.

Dear Congressman,

Before I go on with the topic discussion, thank you for your time by giving attention to what I wrote, Mr. Honorable Mention Congressman.

I am not supporting Arroyo nor Garcia, what I am trying to say is… stop whining for minor things and stop blame game.
Secondly, you are talking of billion dollars that the three former presidents had in the bank, not only billion but hundred billions.
Do you know how to count, do you know how to distinguish hundreds to thousands to millions to billions?
Maybe you are talking of the currency of Zimbabwe where one dollar equals one billion of their money.

This time, I will not believe you to be a congressman. The last time you said you were a lawyer but you are not.
Anyway, what can I say to an impostor like you impersonating as congressman.
Granting that you are one, that’s the reason why the Philippines cannot take off, we have people like you who runs the country not only a pretender but a clown moron.

Thank you, Mr. disHonorable Conman.

Mang Godo

Forget about Winston Garcia. These are all politics. Lets talk about the Bishops.

They are talking so much about the VAT. Do they pay their taxes individually, and for that matter, is the church paying any tax to the government?

If they do not pay tax, how can they voice their own opinion to the government?

We the people who are paying taxes (do we really pay our taxes? ) should have the voice and not those non-paying citizens. Just my personal opinion.

Robbie Tan,

The issue here is not the source of power to generate electricity. The REAL BIG ISSUE here is the COST OF ELECTRICITY. It does always true that if the cost of fuel is high and so with the electricity.

Take the example there in pinas if producing the electricity derive from hydro which is more cheaper than using oil, how come that electricity still high?

It is very logical that MERALCO is charging the consumers irresponsible electricity rates.

And please, do not argue because you are not here living in Saudi Arabia. You wanna bet for $5,000 that we are enjoying lower electricity rate if the not lowest in the whole world.

For your more information, while Saudi Arabia having enjoy high profits on petro dollars, we are experiencing high inflation on basic commodities, like food etcc. except electricity, Now, don’t tell me that high oil prices always something to do for all increases in commodities.

naku, ayan na naman ang mga baliw talking hundreds of billion na pera daw ni H. Martin na ipamimigay daw sa mga mahihirap someday… congressman impostor hoyyyyyy gising….

I will not start calling anyone here a MORON because it will be an insult to all the stupid people. And I would also like to tell Mr. Estraza that I do not speculate in the business of electricity.

Just because there is a single item in your bill in Saudi does not mean your system does not have losses. I will not repeat myself after this, about the inherent characteristics of electrical systems - one of these is technical losses.

If Mr. Estraza can prove to me that the electrical system in Saudi has no measurable losses, then I lose this argument and I will stop commenting here. Otherwise, I think that he is an incompetent finance manager for not knowing the basics of price structures which is taught in business courses starting as early as the freshman year.

If I sounded too technical for you in the previous comments, you can use wikipedia to help you. Try looking up core losses, hysteresis and copper losses for beginners. Now, UNLESS Saudi uses loss-free materials UNLIKE copper for transformers and conductors, your “perfect” Saudi system WILL ALWAYS HAVE SYSTEMS LOSSES, from the generating plant all the way into your house, dormitory, or building.

And don’t give me the BS that only Meralco is greedy because it has many items, which includes systems loss, in its bills.

Congressman and Godo is right, Mang Godo must be a Great Fool or Dakilang Tanga like other people whom I read that supporting GMA. There’s no Official Confirmation that GMA is our Head of State but what we discovered is that there’s a name of HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin of no. 133 Rizal St., San Sebastian, Hagonoy, Bulacan and having multiple financial warrants that could be saved us from this crisis. GMA is making promise out of nothing and she is also expecting these wealth solely entrusted to HM, King Anthony Santiago Martin directly intended for us, worth dying Filipinos.

Ding Estraza,

I have questions for you for the enlightenment and benefit of everyone here in our blog regarding your claimed knowledge gained by just paying your electric bills for the past couple of decades:

1. What power plants is Saudi Electric using?

2. What are the prices of diesel, bunker and petrol right there?

3. What are the transmission, distribution and utilization voltages right there?

4. How can they get rid of the system losses in their electric system? Does their lines do not have resistance or impedances?

5. How much royalties, and taxes does the Saudi gov’t. slap on their oil imports?

6. Are there subsidies in your domestic fuel right there? how much per liter?

Thanks. Please respond the soonest so that everyone will be eductaed.

Chiquito, we can forget Garcia and the Lopezes, they are just personalities; but can we forget our electric bills and Meralco?
I’d say let’s forget about the bishops, consider them as just flies in the ointment. More than half of the world’s population do not believe in what they say.

Sa haba haba ng prosisyon sa pagbabayad parin ng mahal na kuryente ng meralco ang tuloy.. yan ang katotohan, kahit anong esplika gawin ninyo at depense sa meralco sa sarili parin ninyong bulsa at pawis manggagaling ang ibabayad ninyo sa kuryente buwan buwan.

Kung ikaw ay isang driver ng pampaseherong jeep, ikaw ay nahuli dahil nagsakay ka sa “no loading zone”, sisingilin moba sa pasehero mo yung multa sa traffic violation mo? Isa lang yan sa mga “system loss” ng ordinaryong Juan dela Cruz. Ang pagkakaiba lang, hindi kasing gahaman ng Meralco ang ordinaryong Juan dela Cruz..

DJ,

Are you still studying? study some more dude and get the “thing” back in your head.

You blew my head on sayin that its “PURE HEARSAY” that Meralco is entitled to sales profit and public share offerings.

Try reading some books on corporation and its purpose.

If Meralco is a non-stock, non-profit corporation, you have a reason

If not, Dude try to learn other things than defending your beloved Meralco kapamilya. True-blue kapuso? haha.

Mga kabayan, himayin natin ang ating meralco bill para malinaw. Tiningnan ko ang meralco bill ko at ito ang nakasulat

Generation 56%
Transmission 10%
System Loss 9%
Distribution (Meralco) 15.8%
Subsisdies -1.2%
Government Taxes 9.7%

Kung P1,000 ang bill ko ngayong buwan, ibig sabihin , P560 ang napupunta sa Generation, P100 sa Transmission, P90 sa System Loss, P158 sa Meralco at P97 sa Government Taxes.

Ibig sa sabihin Generation Charge ang pinakamalaking bahagi. Kung nanood kayo ng hearing sa Senado tungkol sa Meralco, lumalabas na ang Generation Charge ang tunay na dahilan ng mataas na presyo ng kuryente. Isa dito ang mataas na presyo ng binibiling coal na panggatong ng Napocor para sa IPPs nito (doble ng halaga ng binibili ng ibang IPPs). Pangalawa ang mataas na buwis na ipinapataw sa natural gas na panggatong din sa paggawa ng kuryente. Kasama din dito ang “take or pay” contracts ng karamihan sa mga IPPs.

Ewan ko kung totoo, nabasa ko sa dyaryo, hindi pa daw nagtaas ang charges ng Meralco simula pa noong 2003. Kung totoo yon, hindi natin dapat sisihin ang meralco.

Kaya sa tingin ko, eto ang mga tunay na solusyon sa problema natin sa mataas na presyo ng kuryente:
1. Baguhin ang sourcing strategy ng Napocor sa pagbili ng coal na panggatong at gawin long term para mura ang bili para bumaba ang generation charge
2. Alisin ang mataas na buwis sa natural gas para bumaba ang generation charge
3. Alisin ang E-Vat sa System Loss at sa buong bill sa kuryente (manatakin mo, system loss na, may VAT pa?)
4. Pag-aralan muli ang System Loss limit na 9.5% at singilin lang ang resonable (imposible po talaga ang Zero System Loss)

Agree ako kay Tounge Twisted, ang problemang ito ay problema ng buong power industry at hindi lang ng isang kumpanya

Dismayado,

At last, the real worst baliw is surfaced in your presence. Because you have no money, swimming and drowning from reality of foolishness. like MERALCO you are among worst baliw in the universe. How are your colleagues in Mental, Dismayado. Ha!

The Generation Charge covers the actual kilowatt-hours (KWH) of consumption. Using the conservative example of D J Mazon (my bill shows differently), for consuming 560 Pesos worth of electricity we have to pay an amount equivalent to 18% of what we consumed for transmission (Transmission Charge); plus, more than 16 % of what we consumed was stolen or lost along the way to our house. While the distribution of 158 pesos that Meralco gets from us represents more than 28% of our actual consumption; and, lastly the government gets more than 17% of our consumption.

Adding 18% + 16% + 28% + 17% = 79%. The equation is very simple, we paid for the price of a pig but we only got a front leg.

Now, here comes the mystery or the “sleight of the hand” in magical tricks, under the Generation Charge is the Unit Price where the “undelivered” power is factored in or hidden. If we pursue further and eliminate this hidden cost from the Generation Charge, what we really consumed may be is just the “tenga ng baboy” for the price of a pig.

In my latest electric bill it showed that Meralco collected from me a Distribution Charge of almost 8000.00 for a Generation Charge of about 16,000.00 representing an actual distribution cost of 50% on the power “consumed”. Adding, likewise, the four factors as above, the total is 18,000.00 which exceeded the Generation Charge of 16,000.00 ! ! !

After paying for a whole pig, I don’t even get an ear of a pig to chew on.

Before Winston Garcia should dwell into the shortcomings of the Meralco/Lopezes, he should at least reexamine the government agency he is managing because there are a lot of government employees who are not satisfied with the way GSIS provides service. There are a lot of complaints as to their services. He should at least think not only twice but many times before taking actions against the Meralco and its management.

estraza, you are clueless as to the pricing of electricity. anyone with experience knows that hydro is more expensive than gas, especially bunker or LNG plants. please research more on the matter. to help you, find the cost of the electricity that will be produced by the 3 gorges dam in china. include the cost of land that will be placed underwater and the cost of the dam. and then compare it with a gas plant in saudi. looks like you learned something new, hence the change in your tone. you’re lucky, I dont bet with clueless people.
harry king, if your bill is true, then it is time for you to get off your ass and go to the nearest meralco branch and file for a TOU scheme that will lower your electricity. the scheme has been open to customers with high consumption for over a year.

after reading all the reactions re the meralco issue, i tend to agree more w/ harry king’s analogy. although, dj mazon’s suggestions re abolition of the e-vat on the system loss, etc. are just the perfect solutions.

one ex. of meralco’s lack of monitoring system….my electric meter was not working, so, i reported it to the meter reader, w/c he said “ok yan ma’am, hindi sira”. but, you might call me a fool, but, i cannot for the life of me be dishonest, as so many people are suffering from high power costs and here i am, not being billed rightly. so i called the hotline and reported it again, and it took them a month before the meter was replaced w/ a new one. and the irony of it is i might be billed for back payments! #%& imagine! i honestly reported this busted meter and now they will bill me for their undoing! what if i was dishonest? so will that form part of their systems loss?
why not have someone check the meters, and not rely on the lazy meter readers?
so, we should not absolve meralco. marami silang pagkukulang din….and this is just one incident….
whose job is it to check on the meters? di ba meralco?

Looks like some people here cannot equate electricity prices with oil prices.

In utilities here, prices per kWHr for residential users depends on the amount of power they use. So a user of less that 100 kWHr month will definitely pay less per kWHr than a user of 600 kWHrs a month. Small users of power usually have several subsidies going for them.

Winstong used this simple trickery in one of his many media appearances. And it seems many people were fooled. And are stil being fooled.

To: Toungetwisted & Vivic,

If you provide me with your respective e-mail, I can send you sample of my recently paid electricity bill. It is very simple and straightforward. Even a grade one pupil nowadays can easily understand. I have translated the Arabic wordings into English to enable you to understand.

As for your technical question, there is no need to answer point by point, the bill and the related charges speak for itself, once you got hold of the bill.

Notice that the rate charges based on the categorgy of kilowatts used are testimony that the the company shoulder any charge if there was/is any. On the miniscule rate charge, it is nearest to zero that there would be charges on the way MERALCO charges its customers for distribution, transmission, system losses etc. The rate for 0.05 halalas in the first 2,000 kilowats is very very minimal equivalent to about 0.55 centavos only.

Charges for system losses and distribution charges are only subterfuge charges for a greedy company like MERALCO.

DJ,

Malabo alisin ang taxes. Pwede pa siguro reduce.

Kung ang SYSTEM LOSS ay nasa batas( general argument ng mga Lopez fans), Mas lalong nasa batas ang govt taxes. Problema lang kasi ay nasa crisis tayo ngayon dahil mataas na presyo ng langis kaya nasisilip ang VAT.

To my impression, VAT removal or other taxes to be scrapped totally is just a rich political battlecry by those who oppose the current admin. Its an agenda.

56% generation from Napocor? Ok talaga naman may “milagro” sa Napocor pero hindi buong 56% ang sa Napocor lang. Eh yung mga LOPEZ IPPs na kumukuha din ng supply ang Meralco? Hindi ba part of GENERATION charge din yun? So yung 56% na sinasabi mo eh pinaghahatian ng Napocor, First Phil Holdings(Lopez-owned), Quezon Power(Lopez-owned), ano pa ba?

Kaya kahit na anong depensa mo sa Meralco, sabit pa din dahil may parte sa generation charge ang mga Lopez IPPs. Alam mo ba ang accounting between Meralco and Lopez IPPs? Financial statement of these Lopez IPPs? Sige nga bata?

As i said, this is a problem of the entire power industry which stemmed from the decisions made way back the Ramos administration. The sad thing is, this problem is being continuosly aggravated by the irregularities in Napocor and the way our government slams us with absurd taxes on electricity.

jangjang

“political battlecry” ang alisin ang eVAT?

ei di political battlecry din ang tawag sa ‘ibaba ang singil ng meralco’.

may eVAT kasi ang gobierno ay hindi marunong magnegosyo - kaya lubog sa utang ang napocor. kahit na ‘ekonomista’ pa sya, kuno.

magsabi ka ng presidente na nag-tax ng kuryente? sige nga bata?

GSIS chief faces graft raps over P1-B donation to Malacañang

This is act is total betrayal of public trust as Winston and his gang has no moral and legal rights to give money to malacanang.

Wala na talangang hiya yan si Garcia pati pero ng taong bayan ay pinakialaman. Bakit hindi ito ibigay sa mga nangangailangna thru soft loan sa mga GSIS members na guto mag negosyo.

Winston hindi pera mo yan, at ipinagkatiwala laman sayo ang pwesto sa GSIS para pangasiwaaan at hindi kurakutin. Bakit kurakot dahil hindi naman ma ma-audit yung perang pumunta sa Malancanyang..

Comment by Henry Hikers - March 22, 2008 at 7:56 pm

Where can we find more information to read about this Anthony Santiago Martin? When you google his name, you will only find links to Filipino people posting comments about how he’s so rich and powerful and controls for much money, but there’s no real solid, unbiased info out there. Is he real?
Comment by Who is HM Anthony S Martin? - April 9, 2008 at 6:30 pm

hi robbie,

what is TOU scheme, how can this lower electricity cost?

Master Jang Jang,

Can you explain why the generation charge in our bills is high?

Good afternoon. I am an engineer from Meralco and i am willing to clarify issues about Meralco and GSIS. Thank you.

dismayado

hindi mo talaga makita ang anumang impormasyun tungkol sa di kilalang tao na yan dahil isa siyang kathang-isip lang….

Eng. Jose,

Do you have knowledge on how much electric supply Meralco gets from Napocor, First Phil Holding, Quezon power and other Lopez-controlled IPP.

Can you answer it in terms of rate and its equivalent wattage and amount?

Meralco TIME-OF-USE Rates Program(TOU)

Following the advice of robbie tan, I checked with my nearest Meralco outfit. Below is my understanding on the TOU program.

To avail of this program, the customer must be up-to-date in his payments and must consume on the average at least 1,000 kWh per month.

The rates under this program are effective only for the Unit Price of the Generation Charge; therefore, whatever savings that can be realized under the TOU program is purely on the Generation Charge and its corresponding e-VAT.

Under the TOU, the Generation Rates are divided into Peak-Hours rates and Off-Peak-Hours rate. Peak hours are from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM (Mon. to Sat.) and 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (Sundays); the rest of the hours are considered Off-Peak hours.

Peak hour rates are P6.4852/kWh for Dry Season (Jan. to Jun.) and P6.1053/kWh for Wet Season (July - December). Off-Peak rate is constant at P3.0925/kWh throughout the year. The customer pays 40% more than the regular Unit Price for power consumption during the Peak hours and he saves 31% off the regular Unit Price for power consumed during Off-Peak hours.

The customer will have to pay an Application Fee of P3,046.00 for a special Watt-hour meter (VAT inclusive for single-phase installations), additional monthly Metering Charge (P117.20/mo. plus VAT) and Supply Charge (P0.0109/kWh plus VAT) will be included in the bill.

Basing on the above, if the customer’s power consumption during Peak hours exceeds 40% of his total monthly power consumption, he either makes no saving at all or may have to pay more than his regular bill (based on his pre-TOU billing).

The only way to save on Generation Charge is shift most of the power consumption to within the Off-Peak hours (at least 70% to be safe). If the customer is careless on his power consumption scheduling, he may end up paying more to Meralco.

Based on rough estimates, the break-even point is 40% (Peak) and 60%(Off-Peak). The maximum saving under the TOU program is about 14% of the billing total and that can be attained only if 100% of electric power are consumed within the Off-Peak hours, which is almost an impossibility.

After enrolling in TOU program, we have to run our home like a Videoke Bar first before we can save 10%.

DJ,

I’ll return the quetion to you, HOW MUCH ELECTRIC SUPPLIES MERALCO GETS FROM NAPOCOR, WESM AND LOPEZ-CONTROLLED IPPs?

Sabi mo 56% of Meralco supplies comes from Napocor? Double check your data iho. Alam ko 40% lang from Napocor at 10% from WESM. So, 50% ang sa Lopez IPPs? WOW! Laki talaga ng dugas ng Meralco sa taong-bayan!

Rob Tan,

Legit issue ang “pagbaba ng presyo ng singil ng kuryente”. Direktang makikinabang ang consumer dito.

Yung 12% VAT, as I said DAPAT BAWASAN kasi sobrang tax na ang impose from generation, transmission at distribution ng kuryente. Wag naman alisin, bawasan lang, lets say to 6% VAT na lang.

Tama ba bata?

Engr. Jose:
Issues between Meralco and the GSIS are no longer technical or engineering problems. They are issues bordering on corporate abuses and business ethics. A lot of people would want to know if GSIS has the right to inspect the books and transactions of Meralco; and, although permitted by law, is it ethical for a power distribution utility company to purchase some 18 Billion Pesos worth of “undelivered power” from affiliated energy suppliers and charged it to their customers? These are some of the immediate issues that has to be clarified.

sa kababayan ko na galit kay garcia - bakit hindi niyo tingan ang performance niya sa GSIS. iyan ang dapat natin basihan dahil ng hawakan niya ang GSIS gumanda at tumaas ang kita.

Baka naman galit kayo sa kanya dahil ang mga bisaya ay nakikilala na gayun.

ito rin ang dahilan na ang mga schools sa provinces ay kalaban na rin sa board exams ng mga taga maynila- ito ay manipisto na hindi na pued ngayun dahil nasa computer age na tayo at hindi na kayang lokohin ang mga probensiyano.

Kung may kasalan si Garcia sa mga bintang dapat kasuhan at ipakulong pero wag gamitin ang pambabastos at puro haka haka lamang.

Sa amin sa Samar - hinaharap namin ang kalaban ng tapatan, kaya kung puro bintang lang ang alam mo sa maynila kanalang pumunta at magdada.

Jang-jang:

Don’t forget the power Meralco contracted with the Lopez-affiliated IPPs that was paid for by the Meralco customers but never delivered; close to 19 B. Pesos, according Cong. Villafuerte.

“Take or Pay” is the most onerous business practice allowed by the ERC for the IPPs to exploit the consumer public.

Engr. Jose:

I am sure many of us are happy and welcome you for joining us here. It’s so hard now to have somebody from Meralco that can answer the many questions that puzzle the ordinary layman. I hope you can help me with the following questions.

1. Who determines the system loss, the energy buyers like Meralco or the energy suppliers such as NAPOCOR, WESM, First Gen Corporation, et al ?
2. How is system loss measured and calculated for each energy suppliers?
3. How does Meralco segregate transmission loss from their distribution losses?
4. How does Transco measure the actual wattage carried by their transmission lines every hour of the day?
5. Who pays for the transmission? Meralco or the energy suppliers?
6. What is the basis for the calculation of the Transmission Charge?
7. Why is there a Supply Charge when there is already a Distribution Charge?
8. Why is Metering System Charge based on the power consumption?

Thanks Harry King, Your post was very informative.

You really have to go that far in researching or maybe you are part of the energy sector?

Basing on your post, 1000kw as average to avail of TOU will be applicable only to the level of the Lopez family, meaning only the rich will pass the TOU.

It will also create paranoia in the household. Imagine the house owner will yell at his/her servants not to use the centralized aircon system, water pumps and other high wattage-consuming appliances during peak hours and use it only on off-peak hours to use the TOU.

Generally, benefits can only be availed by consumers who have more money than what he/she only needs. Frequent Flyer Mileage promo?

TOU only on generation billing? What about the distributor Meralco? Fattening their tummy?

Lolo Jhang Jhang,

Your Comment:
Sabi mo 56% of Meralco supplies comes from Napocor? Double check your data iho. Alam ko 40% lang from Napocor at 10% from WESM. So, 50% ang sa Lopez IPPs? WOW! Laki talaga ng dugas ng Meralco sa taong-bayan!

My Answers:
I never said that 56% of the generation charge comes from Napocor. DOUBLE CHECK mo yung post ko, page 36 of this blog Lolo. I know that the generation charge in our bill is a mixture of Napocor, Wesm and Lopez IPPs’ power supplies.

Sige nga, bigyan mo ko ng points kung paano mandugas ang Meralco thru Lopez IPPs? Ikumpara mo yung purchase price ng coal for Napocor against Lopez IPPs, doble ang presyo Lolo. Kung alam mo ang accounting, your total cost increases as your variable cost goes up.

At kung tinitira mo yung Lopez IPPs for their “take or pay” contracts resulting in capacity charges even if not the full capacity is dispatched, ang mga Napocor IPPs ba walang “take or pay” contracts? Think again, halos lahat ng IPPs ng Napocor naka “take or pay” contracts po Lolo. Hindi ka ba nagbabasa ng balita o kaya nanood ng Senate Hearing about the Power Industry issues?

For your information, ang “take or pay” arrangement with IPPs ang nagsalba sa atin sa power crisis (remember those brownout days?) nung panahon ni Ramos. Sino bang investor ang mag-iinvest sa mabilisang pagtatayo ng planta ng walang garantiya?

Kaya bago ka tumira at sumatsat, pag-isipan mo muna. Para kang pusa sa bubong na nag-iingay.

Agree Harry,

Also the meter deposits as promised by Meralco to refund.

If not with the public outcry, Meralco will be enjoying the meter deposits plus interest as part of their income.

Come to think, why blame Meralco? They are private corporation and wants to maximize their profit. Its in the book on corporation and partnership back in college. I cant recall “maximizing the discounts on consumers” as one of the dogmas.

Yeah, why blame Meralco????

Harry King,

Congressman Villafuerte is just looking at he Lopez IPPs for undelivered power under “take or pay” contracts.

Is he blind about the almost 40 IPPs of Napocor with the same “take or pay” contracts?

This is his way of earning browny points from free publicity. It is not correct to just single out an entity, look at the bigger picture. High power rates is a problem of the whole power industry with the government as the main culprit.

Totoy DJ,

Sabi mo:

Ibig sabihin ang Generation Charge ang pinakamalaking bahagi. Kung nanood kayo ng hearing sa Senado tungkol sa Meralco lumalabas na ang Generation Charge ang tunay na dahilan ng mataas na singil ng kuryente.

Sagot:

Yun na nga totoy DJ, kasama ang mga Lopez IPPs sa Generation Charge na reflected sa billing ng Meralco. Damay din ang mga IPPs na ito sa mataas na singil ng kuryente.

Mas mura ang singil ng Napocor on per kilowatt charges especially on peak hours kumpara sa mga Lopez IPPs. Remember nag baba sila ng singil lately? Sana nabasa mo yun sa diyaryo iho.

Kaya puwede ko sabihin na nandudugas talaga ang Meralco sa taong-bayan.

Nandiyan pa yung nabuking na meter deposits at interest na ginawa ng Meralco na income sa financial statement nila. Kundi pa nag-ingay ang taong-bayan, nagpaka-busog na naman ang Meralco dito.

Paano na din yung undelivered power na contracted ng Meralco from its own IPPs before? Ipinasa sa consumer ang charges nito totoy DJ. Kasama ka sa nagbayad iho. Mahal na mahal mo pa din ang Meralco, nakakatawa ka din ano?

Yung sa coal, Indonesian companies ang supplier iho at idinaan sa bidding kaya hearsay yung sinasabi mo na mataas ang bili nila sa coal. Ang mali ng Napocor, hindi sila nag-stock ng pang-matagalan at nagkakaroon ng emergency purchase.

Lugi talaga ang Napocor kasi nga ay mismanage at sa corruption na din. I totally agree.

Kaya totoy DJ, may sabit pa din yung Meralco mo. Magkano ba suweldo mo sa kanila?

Lolo Jang Jang,

Hirap ka talaga umintindi kahit paulit ulit ng na-explain sa iyo. The undelivered power is due to the “take or pay” arrangement of both Lopez owned IPPs and Napcor IPPs. Bakit kaya Meralco lang ang sinisisi mo?

Ikaw na rin nagsabi na you totally agree na “mismanaged” at “sa corruption” na din. Sa tingin mo, sino ang nagbabayad sa cost implications ng mismanagement at corruption ng Napocor? Tayo di ba? Ngayon, kung may logic na natitira dyan sa utak mo, sa tingin mo Napocor reflects the true cost of generated power given their “mismanagement” and “corruption”? Lolo, artificial ang pagbaba ng presyo nila, pag isipan mo. Kaya yung milyun milyon o bilyon bilyon na lugi at utang ng Napocor, boss, tayo ang nagbabayad through E-VAT.

O ngayon, sino ang tunay nagpapahirap? Konting isip lang lolo.

Hi Sir Harry,

Sorry for my delayed reply. Below are my comments with asterisks.

Meralco TIME-OF-USE Rates Program(TOU)

To avail of this program, the customer must be up-to-date in his payments and must consume on the average at least 1,000 kWh per month.
***This is correct. Residential customers with a 12-month average consumption of atleast 1,000 kWh without service irregularity are qualified to apply for the program
.
The rates under this program are effective only for the Unit Price of the Generation Charge; therefore, whatever savings that can be realized under the TOU program is purely on the Generation Charge and its corresponding e-VAT.
***Yes Sir, this is correct.

Under the TOU, the Generation Rates are divided into Peak-Hours rates and Off-Peak-Hours rate. Peak hours are from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM (Mon. to Sat.) and 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (Sundays); the rest of the hours are considered Off-Peak hours.
***This is correct as well.

Peak hour rates are P6.4852/kWh for Dry Season (Jan. to Jun.) and P6.1053/kWh for Wet Season (July - December). Off-Peak rate is constant at P3.0925/kWh throughout the year. The customer pays 40% more than the regular Unit Price for power consumption during the Peak hours and he saves 31% off the regular Unit Price for power consumed during Off-Peak hours.
***This is correct Sir. Let me just clarify, assuming a 4.4111/kwh regular or average rate, here is the comparison:

% a customer pays more during peak hours:
dry season = 47.02%
wet season = 38.41%

% a customer pays less during off-peak hours:
all year round = 29.89%

The customer will have to pay an Application Fee of P3,046.00 for a special Watt-hour meter (VAT inclusive for single-phase installations), additional monthly Metering Charge (P117.20/mo. plus VAT) and Supply Charge (P0.0109/kWh plus VAT) will be included in the bill.
** Correct Sir.

Basing on the above, if the customer’s power consumption during Peak hours exceeds 40% of his total monthly power consumption, he either makes no saving at all or may have to pay more than his regular bill (based on his pre-TOU billing).
***I did a generation charge simulation based on a 4.4111/kwh average/regular/pre-TOU rate. Here is the break-even point:
%Peak to break-even = 43.77%
%Off-Peak to break-even = 56.23% (1-% peak)
You are correct Sir, a customer can realize savings by lowering his peak consumption from 43.77%

The only way to save on Generation Charge is shift most of the power consumption to within the Off-Peak hours (at least 70% to be safe). If the customer is careless on his power consumption scheduling, he may end up paying more to Meralco.
***Yes, Sir. TOU is a pricing option for our customers who want to save on their generation component of their bill. Some of our customers need to shift some of their consumption to off-peak hours in order to realize savings. While some do not need to do anything since their existing consumption pattern is already towards off-peak hours.

Based on rough estimates, the break-even point is 40% (Peak) and 60%(Off-Peak). The maximum saving under the TOU program is about 14% of the billing total and that can be attained only if 100% of electric power are consumed within the Off-Peak hours, which is almost an impossibility.
*** To be more precise, the break-even point:
%Peak to break-even = 43.77%
%Off-Peak to break-even = 56.23% (1-% peak)
I did a simulation, if 100% of electricity are consumed within off-peak hours, 29.89% of savings on generation cost can be realized by a customer.

After enrolling in TOU program, we have to run our home like a Videoke Bar first before we can save 10%.
***Not all residential customers with average consumption of 1,000 kwhs and up will benefit from the TOU program. During a customer’s application for the TOU program, we conduct feasibility checks and provide advise whether or not the customer will benefit. Otherwise, we will advise him/her not to avail. We are providing our customers a prciing option where they can save. Thank you for your comments Sir Harry. I hope i clarified some points that you raised.

Engr. Jose

Hi Sir Harry,

Please see my reply below with asterisk:

Issues between Meralco and the GSIS are no longer technical or engineering problems. They are issues bordering on corporate abuses and business ethics. A lot of people would want to know if GSIS has the right to inspect the books and transactions of Meralco;
***Yes Sir, i believe GSIS has the right to inspect the books and transactions of Meralco. Meralco had always been transparent with these documents.

and, although permitted by law, is it ethical for a power distribution utility company to purchase some 18 Billion Pesos worth of “undelivered power” from affiliated energy suppliers and charged it to their customers?
***I personally believe that our laws are the main and last pillar of justice and equity. I agree that paying for undelivered power is unfair. However, this arrangement is allowed under the contracts that were duly reviewed and approved by the proper authority. These were the only solution then during the power crisis that required immediate setting-up of IPP power plants that required higher than normal costs and guarantee on utlization.

Lolo Jang Jang,

Napocor rates can be lowered anytime they want “artificially”. But who will pay for the real cost of power? Tayo pa ring mga consumers lolo. Aren’t you aware that we are suffering from E-vat because mainly of Napocor debts assumed by our National Government?

You totally agree that Napocor is mismanaged and full of corruption. Then you should also totally agree that their real cost of power will always be higher due to inefficiencies, older facilities plus mismanagement and corruption.

Lolo naman, konting logic lang jan oh

To the Moderator,

Someone else is using my blogname. Kindly address.

Thank you

Engr. Jose said:
“I did a simulation, if 100% of electricity are consumed within off-peak hours, 29.89% of savings on generation cost can be realized by a customer”.

Harry said:
“The maximum saving under the TOU program is about 14% of the billing total and that can be attained only if 100% of electric power are consumed within the Off-Peak hours, which is almost an impossibility”.

Engr. Jose was referring to the maximum saving on Generation Cost which he computed to be 29.89%. However, I was referring to maximum saving of only 14% on the the “Billing Total” which I presumed is more meaningful and important to the consumer.

Also, in my estimates for the savings I used the average value of the Peak hour rates for Dry and Wet seasons. I also used the regular Generation Cost of P4.50 which appeared in my billing statement. My computations were by no means precise and should not be used as a guide for deciding TOU enrollment.

Late night businesses like bars and other entertainment clubs can definitely derive benefits from the TOU. By being more imaginative, some other businesses may also benefit from it.

I’d like to thank Engr. Jose for re-affirming most of my impressions on TOU.

DJ Mazon,

Did the other 40 IPPs made their customers paid to the tune of 19 B as mentioned by Villafuerte?

Is it not possible for a major distribution utility to set up an affiliated generation plant on borrowed funds and then using the “take or pay” racket, make its customers pay off the power plant’s debt obligations? Voila, a free power plant!

Totoy DJ at Eng2,

Di niyo naman sinagot yung issue how much generation cost ang nagmumula sa Lopez IPP? Kasama kasi ito sa generation charge ng Meralco.

Hirap kasi sagutin ano? Wala kasi kayong alam dito at panay sa Napocor ang tingin niyo?

Eng2, transparent ang Meralco? Haha! Nagpapatawa ka ano? Yun na nga ang hinahabol nina Winston Garcia ng GSIS at nang publiko kaya nagkakagulo-gulo.

Di bale, titrahin na din yang “system loss” na pinaglalaban ng mga Lopez fans dahil mas may paninindigan na yung bagong ERC Chief.

Mga iho, wala pa ang EVAT, malaki na po ang utang ng Napocor. Ibat-ibang presidente na ang nakinabang dito. Kaya nga nararapat ang EVAT para mabayaran natin ang mga namanang utang pero dont get me wrong. I am after the reduction if not cancellation of EVAT sa langis lang.

DJ, gamitin mo din yun kukote mo ha? bata ka pa nga talaga iho. Sunud-sunuran ka kung magkano lang ipataw sa yo ng Meralco, magtataas pa nga daw sila kasi meron daw silang “under recovery” daw! Eng2, asan ang transparency nito na sinasabi mo?

My apology to the real Engr Jose.

You had confirmed points posted by Harry. Post info for our education Engr Jose.

Moderator, I believe DJ Mazon have something to do with the faking.

to jang jang- kindly read all articles related to winston garcia- the sacred cow of the arroyo government. take a look at how the gsis employees, pensioners are suffering from this corruption and evil deeds. and before you judge meralco, kindly make sure that you know what you are talking about. check out the distribution costs that meralco charges- the pro rated charges which is one, if not the lowest among utility providers.

and for the nth time- system loss charge is mandated by the constitution with a certain ceiling. its not only meralco that charges that. its all the distribution utilities across the globe.

however, should you wish to make all of the systems here in the philippines trash, you could pursue your call for GSIS winston garcia to take charge whatever he wants.

fanatic:

It is totally unfair if we accuse everyone that criticized Meralco and the Lopezes to be pro-WinstonGarcia.

Although system losses are inherent in every stage of the entire energy production, transmission and distribution systems and even if it is mandated and capped by law, the utilities should take charge of their responsibility to improve their system and bring the losses down to minimum. So far, Meralco has not displayed any real effort to up-grade and improve their system. As technology improves, the laws that governs the industries must change.

The most unfortunate situation that is existing now is that the law did not capped the “take or pay” ceilings. The government in granting this incentive to energy suppliers inadvertently opened the gates to abuses by unscrupulous distribution utility companies that contract energy far above their requirements and then charge it all to their customers. This can easily happen in cases where the distribution utility companies also operate power generating companies. The temptation to cheat is simply to great to resist.

fanatic,

thanks for your feedback.

What bugs me is the fact that the Lopez run Meralco is buying from its own/sister IPPs which sells at a much higher rate.

Yes Napocor had so many things to answer to the public but they are claiming that they are selling electricity lower than these privately owned IPPs by the Lopezes.

I believe just like Napocor, Meralco had many hidden issues to answer to the public.

I really dont care about GSIS fanatic, its another issue to tackle. What we are after are all those who contributes to the high cost of electricity and MERALCO is one of the culprits.

It is only MORAL that Meralco is in hot water at present. Its one way of busting Lopez’s bloated ego believing that they are “untouchables”

Law of Karma had been hitting him for all the misdeeds, look at his ABS-CBN boboos and brushes with the law? No one is above the law my friend.

Take your GSIS issue to another blog issue and your barking at the wrong tree my friend.

Simple questions needs simple answers, stick it to your mind.

Jang Jang, Buti ka pa Meralco lang problema mo kaming mga Empleyado ng Gobyerno eh dugo at pawis ang ninanakaw sa amin ng iniidolo mo. di ba kaswapangan ang ginagawa ng idolo mo. katulad nka rin ng spokeswoman niyang si elampaso o\\ elamparo na yak yak ng yak yak wala namang substance ang sinasabi.

Hamak,

Ang topic kasi natin eh laban nina Winston Garcia at Meralco, sa KURYENTE.

Kampi ako kay Garcia sa sinasabi niyang pababain ang kuryente na binebenta ng Meralco. Kung pambobola man yun, valid sa akin as Meralco consumer ang pinaglalaban ni Garcia.

Kung GSIS ang topic natin, babatikusin ko si Garcia sa paglustay ng pondo ng ahensya at sa mga delays sa claim ng mga GSIS members tapos eh malalaman na lang natin sa balita na bumili siya ng hindi kailangan ng ahensya.

Hindi po kasi ako taong-gobyerno kaya di malinaw sa akin ang laban ng mga members ng GSIS.

Nagtataka lang ako kung bakit pilit na isinisingit ang GSIS issue sa laban sa pagbaba ng singil sa kuryente ng Meralco.

Hindi pa pala tapos itong thread na to. Paulit-ulit lang ang tanong, paulit-ulit din ang sagot kaya walang maresolve.

To settle some issues once and for all:

1. Systems loss was allowed by the framers of the EPIRA law. Short-sightedness brought us this problem. No one listened to us back then when we were opposing it. Now even Gloria’s fans are putting the blame on Meralco when they were the ones who crafted the law. They now even call for class suits. Stupidity at its worst!

2. EVAT on systems loss is more stupid. The “VA” in “EVAT” stands for value-added, why then should you tax a “Loss”? Of course, like thieves in the night, it’s the morons of congress who railroaded EVAT.

3. The motives of Garcia are impure. His family owns interests in Aboitiz-owned VECO in Cebu and are direct competitors of Meralco in the asset disposal of Napocor. His proposal to break-up Meralco’s franchise gave him away. If you look at the auctions of PSALM, it was either Lopez or Aboitiz who were awarded the plants. Without Meralco, who would have benefited? It doesn’t take rocket science to know that.

4. Meralco has 2 Natural Gas Plants, and one bunker-fed. But The price of NatGas has been indexed with Petroleum. Instead of running plants on cheaper fuel from an indigenous source, we still pay as if we are using Saudi Oil. Further, Government levies 25% royalties for this natural treasure. Not to mention, EVAT is added once the bill is passed to us poor consumers.

Who is therefore more greedy, Meralco or government?

5. The competitive price of power WORLDWIDE is only US 7 cents/kWhr, or about P3.15. How much is Napocor charging Meralco?

6. ALL POWER PLANTS constructed under the BOT scheme in Ramos’ watch are collecting Take-or-pay of half the total amount it passes to Meralco. Everybody, including Meralco is paying double for every kilowatthout capacity of a plant. Even if it is undergoing maintenance repair or when off-grid! Again this is the handiwork of Congress, which gave Ramos unlimited emergency powers. Is Meralco at fault or government?

Some people here quote Villafuerte who has said P19B was passed by the non-performing (yet) Lopez plants as Take-or-pay when in fact more than a HUNDRED BILLION was passed by Napocor’s IPPs since 1993.

Didn’t you notice it was a forest when you were looking at a tree?

7. Congress can yet redeem itself by correcting its past mistakes. But what has it done? What is it doing? Posturing for charter change to solve the Muslim conflict no one among them really wants to end?

If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress?

Villafuerte alleged that the Lopezes collected 19 B within the span of 3 years for the power that was never delivered. This, if computed for a period of 15 years, is comparable to what Napocor collected since 1993. The big difference is that the so-called Napocor-contracted IPPs do not belong to Napocor, while the Meralco-contracted IPPs belong to the Lopezes.

The public always find it detestable to see when big businesses used the defects of the law to cheat their customers.

Meralco always had an accusing finger to Napocor on the high cost of generation.

Look whose big mouth is talking! Lopez is also adding to the high cost of the generation charge as the Lopez owned Meralco is also buying from the Lopez led/owned IPPs like Quezon Power and the others.

No numbers needed, plain and simple.

COA can by all means audit Meralco being a company with installations in public areas with govt control.

Meralco is Lopez-controlled but it remains a public utility firm.

GSIS as one of the major stakeholders in Meralco is a crystal clear govt entity thus the Govt have part interest in the ownwership of Meralco. The very reason that COA can audit firms like Meralco.

The soonest COA can audit Meralco, the better for the public to know how much money is gypped by the unscrupoulus practices of the Lopez-led Meralco.

The DOJ has filed a non-bailable, syndicated estafa case against 16 Meralco officials. Is Gonzales capable of jailing the estafadors? Or is it just another palabas.

In order to audit Meralco, NASECORE should course their request through the ERC. If the request is based on valid grounds, the ERC must then request COA to audit Meralco books and accounts.

The Meralco is not a private enterprise of the Lopezes. It is a publicly listed distribution utility firm, franchised by Congress and regulated by the government through the ERC.

According to Supreme Court decision ( G.R. No. 141314 and G.R. No. 141369 ) …..”When private property is used for a public purpose and is affected with public interest, it ceases to be juris privati only and becomes subject to regulation,” also in the same decision, “The investor agrees, by embarking capital in a utility, ……. His company is the substitute for the State in the performance of the public service, thus becoming a public servant.”

Actually, the utility company should voluntarily subject itself to regular COA audit to gain the confidence of the public and the government.

Now we see the benefits of the noise created by Winston Garcia against Meralco.

We learn that we pay for the electricity that we never use courtesy of the system loss of Meralco.

We learn that COA cannot audit Meralco as claimed by Meralco insider on the grounds that they are private firm wherein their business is a public utility.

We learned about the hidden funds emanated from the electric meter deposit that belongs to the consumers BUT Meralco claimed it as INCOME in their book. Thanks to Winston Garcia on the expose.

Last but not the least, We learned that Meralco is in the center of the bribing scandal done to CA resulting to the shameful discharge of Justice Roxas on his corrupted favoring on Meralco in the case filed by GSIS.

Meralco deserves to be owned by other competetive power investors like the Aboitiz. If Ayalas, Sys, Tans or Gokongweis can own Meralco, WHY NOT.

One more, I PRAY THAT ABS-CBN NEWS TEAM WOULD DISBAND AND FORM A MORE CREDIDIBLE TEAM AFTER THE DISBANDMENT. The current news team is tainted and corrupted.

We should thank Winston Garcia for shaking Meralco.

Violent reaction?

jangjang humirit ka na naman…

thanks winston garcia for shaking meralco?

only stupid persons doesnt know that the actions of GSIS Winston Garcia is influenced or direct order from malacanang….

and malacanang revengeful acts towards meralco etal is only to harass, hostage and a failed takeover for their personal interest.

sabi nga nagkataon lang na may magandang bunga ang pag-iingay ni W. Garcia pero di mo rin maikakaila na iba ang motibo sa naging aktuwal na pangyayari….

hay ang gobyerno ni gloria puro pagpapaikot, panlilinlang at pagsasamantala…sa mga utos, polisiya at patakaran ng malakanyang lalo lang niya pinaghahati-hati ang sambayanan.

may mga pagkakamali at pagkukulang ang meralco pero higit na malinaw ang isyu ng panggigipit at ang naising puwersahang pagkontrol sa mayorya ng shareholders para sa kanilang sariling kapakinabangan.

meralco vs. winston garcia is just another issue…

tik tak tik tak…konti na lang ang oras nila kaya sige arya kunin lahat ang dapat mapakinabangan….

ang kawawa…ang pobreng juan dela cruz

ang kawawa…ang bansang pilipinas.

tik tak tik tak…wala ng oras sila kaya sabi nga pati pamato laban na…

hintayin na lang natin ang susunod na kabanata sa pakikipagsapalaran ng masang pilipino sa kamay ng gloria corrupt-poration at malacanang mafia.

jangjang next time try to explain the beauty of governance of gloria, how she influence the higher courts, the various govt institution, how she convinced everybody that shes the chosen one.

hay hay buhay…wait na lang na sana may magandang pagbabago na maganap sa mahal nating bansa.

although i vomit at winston garcia’s credibility, he has some good exposes like what jang 2x has noted. ABS CBN news team is all about covering up their sister company’s garbage..

Meralco should be converted in a cooperative and run by the public…i dont trust GSIS, they coulnt even provide decent loans and pensions to its members.

Miguel Olivares says (226) “… I dont trust GSIS, they coulnt even provide decent loans and pensions to its members.”

That is rather a sweeping statement and, for lack of understanding, quite unfair. I know GSIS, like SSS, provide pensions based on members’ contribution. If pensions are low it’s because contributions are low. Obviously, you need to contribute much more if you expect to get a high pension, but can you afford it?

SSS and GSIS have designed their socialized pension system for low-income members to make contributions affordable but the trade off is pensions and other benefits are relatively lower. Members who feel the pensions are inadequate and can afford it also secure additional pension plans from private pension funds to augment the benefits according to their needs.

As regards loans, obviously the limit of loanable amount is dependent on one’s capability to pay. It is unreasonable to expect approval of a loan, whether large or small, when a borrower does not have the means to pay back.

maria makiling,

Ang layo naman ng reaction mo?

It only proves that your in the “bluebook”

Aray! Sapol ba mam?

Ibalik ko ang tanong sa yo, Transparent ba ang Meralco sa mga transaction nila? Especially sa taong bayan?

Bakit naman kay PGMA mo binaling ang sisi? Lumang gimik na yan ha? Pagod na ang taong-bayan diyan. Focus tayo sa Meralco at kay Winston dito.

Dare nga kita, Batikusin mo nga si Manolo at Gabby Lopez? Aber?

Hintayin ko mam ha?

nakaka-awa ang mga NALOKO ni winstong. ang bida ng “transparency” ay nagtatago hanggang ngayon tungkol sa foreign investment nila. hindi gaya ng meralco na binabantayan ng ERC, walang nagbabantay sa gsis sa pangungurakot nila ng pera ng mamamayan.
para sa mga NALOKO ni winstong, bakit hindi nya magaya ang CalPERS, respetado sa buong mundo dahil sa TRANSPARENCY nila? dahil pag TRANSPARENT ka, mahirap MANGURAKOT ang mga taong gaya ni winstong.
maliit ang pension kasi maliit ang hulog? or maliit ang pension kasi MALAKI ANG KURAKOT NG BOARD AT SWELDO NG MGA EMPLEADO NG GSIS
gets nyo na?

Nakakatawa ka rob tan,

Kelan naman naging transparent ang magaling momg Meralco? Yung meter deposit nila kung di pa nag-ingay si winstong eh pinaghati-hatian na yan ng mga Lopez owned companies. So sino ang suwapang? Pati yung system loss? paano ang detalye ng computation ng system loss? Alam mo ba rob?

jangjang may pa bluebook ka pang nalalaman…applicable yun sa malacanang mafia at arroyo corrupt-poration na wariy koy nakikiamot ka kasi nakakabilib ang simpatiya mo, ang tibay…

tama si robie tan,pag issue transparency open naman ang libro ng meralco ang tanong ang libro ba ng gsis at the way gloria etal spending billions ay open din ba?

im not also in favor of meralco because of monopoly sa power sector but the problem the government allows meralco to monopolize instead of inviting new players para maimprove services, magkaroon ng competition at makinabang ang consumer.

though i respect your opinion, natutuwa lang ako d way you reason out para bang media brigade ka ni gloria o deputy spokesperson…nakakagigil kasi baluktot na nga pangangatwiran, ang siste pa eh sablay palagi…

hindi naman ako lumalayo sa topic,ang hindi mo maintindihan ang punot dulo kung bakit may winston garcia vs.meralco…ang mga katanungan na sino ba sa dalawa ang higit na malinis? sino ba sa dalawa ang may pansariling interes? sino ba sa kanila ang mas higit ang malasakit sa bayan? sino ba sa kanila ang lalong may kapakinabangan ang bayan…

ang problema ng gloria mo pati na rin ikaw ay ang hilig nyong gumawa ng isyu mapagtakpan lang ang malaking problema ng bansa…korupsiyon, pang-aabuso, pagsasamantala, pagsisinungaling at pambabastos sa ating saligang batas.

ikaw ang hahamunin ko, kasi nga ang yabang ng tinuran mo…ano na bang nagawang pagbabago sa buhay mo simula ng maupo ang magaling mong gloria?
mas umayos ba ang ating lipunan?
naging matatag ba ang ating mga institusyon?
naging sandalan ba natin ang gobyerno sa samut saring problema ng bansa?
naging epektibo ba ang mga programa sa mahihirap?
bumuti ba ang sistema ng hustisya sa ating bansa?
madami pang katanungan ang kasagutan ay alam mo pero pilit mong ginagawang mangmang ang sarili dahil sa iyong paniniwala.

isang araw ay magigising kang dilat ang iyong mata nakatingin sa malayo at umaasa pa rin ng isang maunlad at matatag na pilipinas sa pamunuan ng iyong gloria.

ang isyu ng winston garcia vs. meralco ay isa lang sa mga stratehiya ng malacanang mafia at kahit ano pang pagtatanggol mo nagmumukha ka lang mangmang sa isyu ng lipunan.

gumising ka, at kumilos sa pagbabago..hindi yung mali ay naka-oo ka pa rin…sabagay may mga taong sunod-sunuran sa isang masamang lider at hangad ko lamang na maituwid ang iyong kaisipan.

mabuhay ka pilipino.

Mr Bong, they (senate or whosover) how they(GSIS) operate. It is so unfair. After the automatic deductions from your payroll, “ako pa ngayon ang may utang sa kanila”. So I closed the account. What happened was this. I am a doctor back in the Philippines and was moving from one employer to another. I did not know that the months I was not connected to an employer they will charge you. Thus after I left the public hospital where I took my residency and got employed in a private entity, I was shocked that I owe them. After a number of years of contributing and without any letter from them informing such. P*** and B*******t to them. Sorry but I hate that system. Thus, I left pnas with a thought that nothing will happen good to the country. I do not hope for them to take action but I would like some divine intervention would happen and prevent that from recurring. Mr Garcia look at your process!

the presi-dent, the sin-ate, congress(mean), governor, mayours, and other hellish political entities in our rotten country should buy each one of their constituents a mirror and start looking up their a**ses…maybe there’s money inside it so that they can stop stealing money from the government and the Filipino people…however, their a**ses are so big that they can stuff money inside them…here’s what my tirade is about: A retired police officer with P6M in his pocket!!wow!!how can the Filipino people look passively at this blatant corruption right in front of them?the idiot cop apologizes…maaannnn, he deserves to be hanged in public, just like in China.

some people are so blind they cant see how a transparent industry when they see one. nag-ingay si winstong kaya nagkaroon ng meter refund? whatta LIE, coming from the gsis liar. read the news, go to the ERC website to get the TRUE story. if ther is any swapang here, it is the gsis.
why, teachers are suing them for witholding benefits. the gsis modus operandi? autodeduct from teacher’s salary then lose the record. even a supreme court justice is a victim of this gsis MO. no wonder winstong gets a huge salary.this is out and out stealing. which is why the gsis chair post is one of the most coveted positions in the govt.

Consumers should be vigilant as Meralco will sneak in as a daylight robber in the middle of the political headlines and will attempt again to increase their already high rates.

Paging Nasecore and VACC. There should be no let up with protest against the sinister plans of Lopez and Meralco.

All these current headlines, Preventing Meralco to increase rates will have a direct result to the meager budget of Juan de la Cruz.

Bring it on Nasecore and VACC!

retiring teachers are lining up at the gsis where they are turned away due to the gsis lack of funds. during the time of belmonte, gsis pensioners received 10% yearly increase and a Christmas bonus given on time.

during garcia’s term, the gsis gave only one increase, and only for 3%. and Christmas bonuses are released only to newspaper articles.

and this is the people’s champion? LOL

nasecore and vacc? gearing up for 2010. ’nuff said

gsis family bank, petron and several other gsis holdings are being sold. talagang walang pera ang gsis, headed by the “people’s champion”. malaki ang nalugi sa Lehman Bros na hanggang ngayon ay ayaw pang aminin.

pakitaas ang mga paa ng mga taong naloko ni winstong garcia. LOL

napocor increased power rates in luzon by 79 cents. where is idol winstong?

oh I see, napocor increase. if napocor increased by 1 million peysos, winstong is quiet. if meralco increased by ahalf cent, winstong is in the press.

ilang linggo na ang nakalipas at tahimik pa rin si idol winstong. talagang nakalimutan na ang ipinaglalaban nyang “lower power prices”. malapit nang masingil ang 79 cent increase ng napocor at very quiet pa rin si idol winstong.

siguro dahil wala na sya sa meralco board at lubog na ang gsis sa utang (despite his praise releases to the contrary) kaya tahimik sya ngayon. kawawa naman ang milyones na naloko nya noong nagpapanggap sya na “people’s champion”

MARIA MAKILING ANG LAKI NG IBINAYAD SAYO NG MERALCO AH…

SA LAHAT YATA NG WEBSITES AGAINST MERALCO NAGPOPOST KA… KITANG KITA SA WRITING MO>> NAIISANG TAO KA>>>

jesus martinez of the sec is now in the news for taking bribes from legacy. wait ! he is the sec commissh who signed the undated cdo to meralco to help put winstong take control of meralco. boy, this winstong character really knows how to pick his henchmen, LOL.

sorry for the millions of people who were fooled by winstong and his henchmen.

cris…di ko kailangan ng bayad ninuman,pagbibigay lamang ng sariling opinyon at pagsusuri sa mga isyu ng lipunan ang ginagawa ko….

at salamat napapansin mo ang aking pagsulat, pero di ko kailangan ang admirer na tulad mo nagmamasid at nanghuhula, nagbabakasakali na tama ang iyong haka-haka.

ang tanong ko bakit mo sinusuri angpagsulat ko at ang tiyaga mo para para himayin ang isipan ko? tapos sabay banat malaki binayad sa yo ng meralco?

heto na na naman ang media brigade…gsis chapter ng malacanang mafia at arroyo corrupt-poration.

sana suriin mo muna ang argumento at pananaw ko bago ka bumanat ok…
at kung wala ka namang ginagawa at animoy blog researcher ng mga pro-gloria, pro-winston, pro-corruption…ay bakit di mo na lang buhusan ng oras ang pag-iisip ng magagandang suhestiyon upang maiangat ang sistema ng pamunuan dito sa ating bansa.

marami sa ating mga tinuring na lider, ay puro doble-kara animoy mabait sa harap ng masa pero masahol pa sa gutom na buwaya na handang sumila ng mahihinang biktima.

pansinin mo ang mga lider ng institution, govt-corporation na nagpadala na sa sistema at polisiya ni gloria…nakaw sige nakaw at pag nabuko takipan tayo dalhin sa proper forum at pag medyo maingay media magpalamig muna sa st. lukes at magsakit-sakitan at pag medyo maayos na ilipat sa bagong posisyon at hayun tuloy na naman ang slogan nila….
nakaw sige nakaw!

maria makiling Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm

Perhaps the real problem about the Lopez group is that they are GREEDY!!!!
joey..the issue of meralcos monopoly is partly blamed to the govt who allowed to give them long franchise instead of inviting new players in power distribution industry. and dont blame the lopezes for being a power player in the philippines because it is part of of business and politics not only here but in other countries.The only questionable issue is the timing of this arrogant winston garcia and all of a sudden meralco is their favorite target. We know the greedy practice of business and meralco is a business entity so part lang yun ng so called “business practice”
But the real issue mali na yung timing, mali pa yung tao na naka front ala “joan of arc” and for what reasons?
hmmm…if this govt and previous govt is consistent on their policies to reduce power charges maraming paraan and kaagarang maipapatupad nila ang kaso may ibang agenda ang magaling na pinuno ng GSIS at hintayin na lang natin ang tunay na motibo ng biglang pag-iingay ni Winston Garcia.
ang bayan ng pinas laging naiipit sa mga awayan ng magnanakaw, buwaya at mga ganid. Iisa lang naman ang gusto ng bawat grupo na mas makalamang sa isang grupo.
and with this issue, malacanang again prevails with their strategy to divide public opinion and buy time from the real issues of corruption and human rights
abuses.
ano na naman kayang isyu ang susunod na bubuksan ng malacanang mafia at arroyo corrupt-poration?
God save our country

With PLDT controlling more than 30% of meralco and the Lopezes 13+%, they obviously have the majority control of meralco.
too bad for winstong who sits in the smc board. the dream of winstong being meralco chair just became more far-fetched