FDC In The News: On Consumer Ownership of Meralco

On 27 May 2008, the day Meralco shareholders held their meeting to vote for a new set of officers, FDC members joined various groups in denouncing the high cost of electricity in the country. FDC and its member organizations were united in calling for consumer ownership of the country’s biggest electricity utility.

While the most of the media attention was focused more inside the Meralco Theater, FDC still managed to deliver its message. Radio reporters from dzBB, dzMM and dwBL reported live our protest. Our campaigner, Job Bordamonte was also interviewed by UNTV 37. The Philippine Daily Inquirer showed in its banner collage of photos as well as in their print and online versions our calls and demands. Remate used our photo op as their banner photo, while GMANews.TV also reported our position.

GMANews.TV
27 May 2008
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/97517/Group-reiterates-call-for-power-rate-cut-consumer-control-of-Meralco

Group reiterates call for power rate cut, consumer control of Meralco

MANILA, Philippines – Besides reiterating its call for a power rate cut, a non-government organization also demanded that the ownership structure and management control of the Philippines’ largest electric distributor be democratized “in favor of consumers.”

“When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, as the saying goes. In this power play of two elite groups vying for the control of the power sector, through the strategic control of Meralco, it is the consumer who suffers as manifested in the form of high electricity rates,” the group said in a statement issued on the day its members participated in a protest action outside the venue of Meralco’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Ortigas on Tuesday.

The group refers to the verbal tussle between Winston Garcia, president of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), representing the Arroyo government, and the Lopezes, the franchise owner of MERALCO.

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Philippine Daily Inquirer
27 May 2008, Online

Breaking News / Metro
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080527-139185/Democratize-ownership-of-power-utilities–militant-groups

Democratize ownership of power utilities–militant groups
By Jerome Aning

MANILA, Philippines–Militant groups who trooped to the Manila Electric Company’s stockholders’ meeting in Pasig City on Tuesday, called for stronger consumer representation in running power utilities, aside from pressing for lower power rates.

“The high cost of power must be addressed decisively by the government not only because it is a bane to production but is also a heavy burden to the poor,” said Partido ng Manggawa chair Renato Magtubo.

Members of the Freedom from Debt Coalition referred to the ongoing verbal tussle between Winston Garcia, president of Government Service Insurance System, which holds the second largest stake in Meralco, and the Lopezes, the franchise owner of Meralco, as “a battle between two elephants in which the grass suffers.”

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Philippine Daily Inquirer
28 May 2008, Page 1

Inquirer Headlines / Nation
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080528-139249/When-smallest-to-biggest-owners-become-electric

When smallest to biggest owners become electric
By Ronnel Domingo, Abigail L. Ho, Daxim Lucas

MANILA, Philippines—It seemed so unlike past meetings of the stockholders of the country’s biggest power distributor.

Even the smallest owners of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), who had not attended such meetings before, came. Members of the police SWAT team, with their guns and their bomb-sniffing dogs, were also around.

And inside the cavernous Meralco Theater itself, where Tuesday’s annual shareholders gathering was being held, people couldn’t seem to get their cell phones to work, causing whispers to float around that signals were perhaps being jammed.

Through it all, one thing was evident: The Lopezes, a family that belongs to the Philippines’ old rich and controls Meralco, showed theirs is a family that sticks together.

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