by Miriam G. Desacada
Palo,Leyte–Distribution utilities and generation companies must refund consumers in Eastern Visayas of their payments for electricity, which were supplied via coal energy through illegal power contracts that also caused domestic rates to surge, according to the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), and other consumer groups.
Officials of CEED and other groups met with the local media in a press conference this week in Tacloban City where they disclosed their ongoing efforts to save consumers in the region from being victimized into paying overpriced electric rates as a result of illegal power supply agreements (PSA) carried out over the years.
Distribution utilities (DUs) should refund to the consumers the amount paid based on the rates coming from these illegal PSAs, said Griderick Alila, Visayas coordinator of CEED, citing a previous Supreme Court ruling that these rates, being without legal basis, should not be passed-on to the consumers.
The SC, in a 2019 decision, nullified these PSAs for failing to undergo the required Comprehensive Selection Process (CSP). There were 120 PSAs affected of this High Court ruling, and that 11 of them are from distribution utilities in Eastern Visayas (Region 8), stated a CEED press statement.
CEED, together with church groups and civil society organizations, is launching this region-wide project or initiative for legal action seeking a refund of consumer payments for electricity under the rates of illegal PSAs, said Alila. “We plan to file a petition or a formal case in court against these Dus” that implemented illegal power rates to consumers, he added.
Farah Gamalo, of the Freedom from Debt Coalition-Eastern Visayas, said that DUs and generation companies owe the electric consumers of Region 8 a refund after paying for expensive and illegal power supply without their knowledge.”
Alila said, “DUs are disregarding the plight of their consumers. Ninety percent of the contracted energy supply in the region is composed of expensive energy from coal plants outside the region. With these contracts, consumers are paying much higher electricity rates than in Metro Manila.”
Advocates added that “the continued use of coal triggers negative environmental impacts, and contributes to the worsening of the climate crisis,” especially to the climate-vulnerable Eastern Visayas.
“Consumers are already having difficulties from rising costs of basic needs, and even then, we are forced to shoulder high electricity costs. Coal also costs not only our pockets but also our lives,” added Gamalo.
The groups raised concerns that, instead of learning from Yolanda, the region massively expanded its use of coal in the last decade, from 51 percent in 2013 to 90 percent in 2013.
Ronald Abao, program head of Caritas-Palo, said that with the Yolanda devastation, the people should have enough reason to stop dependence on dirty energy (coal). “Yolanda was a painful lesson for everyone, and should continue to be a reminder for the years to come,” he said.
Rallying for concern of the people facing this dire climate situation, Albao declared: “We have to do our part by demanding accountability to protect our people and our immediate environment.”
Alila then raised the prospects of greener and cheaper energy for 2025 by presenting other alternative solutions for the illegal PSAs on coal use. “DUs in Eastern Visayas should bank on the region’s immense potential for clean, affordable renewable energy,” he said. —-Miriam G. Desacada