Passing on the burden to power consumers

When it comes to profit, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) keeps a distance from the public eye. But when it comes to transmission-related problems, it involves the electric consumers.

Similarly, when the Agus hydro plants fail to operate, National Power Corp. (Napocor) blames the water level of Lake Lanao and calls the public to pray for the rains to come.

Somewhere, there is something wrong with this kind of mindset. Every time a power problem occurs, the lowly consumers get the flak.

Case in point: When consumers complain of brownouts, they get nothing but notices of scheduled power interruptions.

Yet, electric consumers in this country pay exorbitant electric bills, considered the highest in Asia, second only to Japan.

To NGCP and Napocor, this is plain and simple economics: We pay the bills, you deliver. No more, no less.

NGCP bills the consumers for transmission, while Napocor passes on to them the generation cost. Before the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, all charges emanated from Napocor.

The lowly consumers of electric power are treated like dimwits  to cover up the kapalpakan of NGCP and Napocor in dealing with  internal problems. Indeed, it’s like calling all their neighbors to intervene in their domestic problem.

If the biggest mall in the city gets robbed, does it involve its customers to solve the crime? Of course not! A petty crime calls for  police action, not people power.

Without doubt, this “pass-on culture,” this passing-the-buck approach, sound unethical. It makes corporations look like cry babies. Not the kind of sob story for Facebook.

Interestingly enough, power consumers may tell NGCP and Napocor in response: “Bahala kayo sa buhay ninyo!”

Kidding aside, isn’t this practice of passing the burden to consumers a violation of consumer rights?

NGCP is in for business. It is not a government entity per se. Therefore, it has no personality at all to enlist the participation of the public to put a stop to the endless bombings in Mindanao. It has to mind its own business in running the transmission business. Period.

In the first place, why go into business if you can’t deliver? The buzzword is profit with a social conscience.

—RUFFY MAGBANUA, chair, Movement for a

Brownout-Free Mindanao, [email protected]