Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the threat of state takeover of the Manila Electric Company being foisted by Malacañang to lower power costs is nothing but a ploy to compel its sister-company, ABS-CBN broadcast network, to stop being critical of the Arroyo presidency.

Senator Pimentel said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her advisers know that it would be a folly to push for a state takeover of MERALCO because of the dismal record of government in managing business enterprises, the stigma of corruption hanging over the administration and because it will be totally inconsistent with its much-ballyhooed privatization policy in the power sector.

“We do not like the government taking over MERALCO. But I’m sure that is not the intention of GMA. She merely wants to silence the ABS-CBN and other media facilities owned by the Lopezes (majority stockholder of MERALCO) so they can be used for the propaganda of the administration,” he told the Newsmakers Forum at the Ambassador Hotel in Malate.

Senator Pimentel said a state takeover of MERALCO will be contradictory to the government policy laid down under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to privatize the National Power Corporation.

He said the yarn to take over MERALCO or to replace the Lopez group in managing the power distribution firm looks all the more pathetic given the gargantuan financial losses incurred by NAPOCOR from the operations of its power plants and other assets.

Senator Pimentel said a state takeover of MERALCO will be contradictory to the government policy laid down under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.Saying he is no apologist of MERALCO, the minority leader criticized the power utility giant over its practice of passing on to consumers so-called systems losses which are due to pilferage of power and illegal connections.

He recalled that even during his childhood years in Cagayan de Oro City, the local electric cooperative never charged the cost of its systems losses to the hapless consumer.

“Why should the system’s losses of MERALCO and other power utility companies, require their customers to shoulder their system losses? That is totally unfair because it is not their fault that MERALCO is incurring system’s losses,” he said. # # #