The last time Congress granted emergency powers to a president was during the term of Fidel Ramos, when a crisis on power supply literally drained activity from the economy. Earlier, Congress also vested Corazon Aquino such powers.
The result during the presidency of Ramos, was an oversupply of overpriced power plants the cost of which is, up to now, being made to shoulder by the public through higher electricity rates. And to think that when Ramos was vested with the so-called powers for the Build Operate and Transfer power projects, the line given by both Congress and Ramos himself, was that no money will come out from the people, or the government.
What a big lie. To this day, we keep on paying for that which is not even consumed by the people while oodles of money siphoned off to private pockets is now in personal banks.
The unrealistic cost of electricity being supplied by most of these private power plants have made the Philippines second only to Japan in Asia in terms of power costs.
The stacking up of power plants with Ramos' use of emergency powers resulted in a number of these plants staying idle but which continue to earn based on the take or pay provision in their contracts with the National Power Corp. Many of these plants that carry the onerous deal with the government are mere giant power generators that are fed with diesel fuel.
It is ridiculous that we have the second most expensive electricity in Asia, only behind Japan. As if mayaman tayong bansa. Mas mahal pa ang kuryente natin kaysa sa Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Indonesia, and China.
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1 comment:
we really should think about nuclear power. mothballing the plant was a mistake. even presuming it was tainted with corruption. Westinghouse had already offered to restitute us by finishing the plant for us but we turned it down for ideological reasons not practical. Nuclear plants don't need refueling for years. the upfront cost is big but running cost is low. We already paid the upfront cost.
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