Consumer groups: Revoke SMC power service deals
Consumer groups renewed their call for the ERC to revoke the said contracts after earlier efforts to urge SMC to surrender the deals were ignored.
ENVIRONMENTAL advocates troop to the main office of San Miguel Corporation in Mandaluyong City Thursday to hand the food and beverage giant the Asia’s Dirtiest Companies award. | PHOTOGRAPH BY ANALY LABOR FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE @tribunephl_ana
Gaming the system has long been a practice of San Miguel Corporation, consumer advocates, citing Supreme Court and Energy Regulatory Commission documents, maintained over the weekend.
The records, according to the groups, tended to show that 36 SMC contracts had been rendered invalid, and yet the company continues to earn from them.
Consumer groups renewed their call for the ERC to revoke the said contracts after earlier efforts to urge SMC to surrender the deals were ignored. They warned of stratospheric electricity rates if SMC gets to have its way.
"These should be looked upon and scrutinized. San Miguel has 36 active PSAs which had been voided back in 2019 by the Supreme Court, but still remain active for some reason," Power for People Coalition convenor Gerry Arances said.
"How come we are turning a blind eye to corporations' missteps and find it so easy to place the burden on ordinary people?" he added.
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino president Atty. Luke Espiritu, on the other hand, said SMC is violating the people's right to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy in continuing to implement 33 PSAs that have already been voided by the Supreme Court for failure to undergo bidding.
High generation rates
This has resulted in high generation rates, he stressed. "PSAs are not ordinary contracts. They are imbued with the public interest. It must guarantee fairness and consumer protection," Espiritu averred.
"In the middle of high inflation and grave economic crisis affecting the public, SMC pushes down our throats the P15 billion it had lost due to its own decisions," he stressed.
SMC's "latest attempt at circumventing the law," according to consumers, was its effort to get out of the fixed-price power supply agreement of its two power plants with Meralco by going to the ERC to alter the contract in order to pass to consumers the burden of paying for its losses.
SMC energy unit SMC Global Power subsidiaries South Premier Power Corp. and SMC Energy Corp. have petitioned for a P4.80 temporary power rate increase but these were dismissed by the ERC since it will violate the provisions of its PSA.