Ending our misery

Richard James Mendoza

Last Tuesday, the oral arguments were held at the Supreme Court regarding the case against Meralco filed by groups like the Bayan Muna partylist and electricity advocacy group Nasecore. Since I was attending protest actions that were being held outside the high court, I wasn’t able to get updates from the hearing until the next day. And so what I saw in the news articles that covered the oral arguments was something that both confused and angered me at the same time. It only took me a look at the Facebook status of the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno to confirm my uneasiness about the possibility of the SC handing down a decision that is partial to Meralco.

Quoting from Inquirer’s news item “Meralco accused of jacking up rates”, KMU’s Facebook account called Chief Justice Sereno a ‘puppet of Aquino’ and said that her comment to the petitioners about their petition to invalidate Sections 6 and 29 of the Epira Law as “using a sledge hammer when a surgeon scalpel could have sufficed” as an indication of what the decision of the high court could be like after everything else have been settled.

In another news item, “Makabayan bloc accuses Meralco of price manipulation”, the Justices “…have questioned petitioners why they went straight to the Supreme Court instead of the Energy Regulatory Commission.” But that’s exactly the reason why the petitioners went straight to the SC instead of the ERC (and rightfully so). Based from what I’ve witnessed in some public hearings and public consultations in the ERC, it just seems that the agency has virtually become a rubber stamp for Meralco’s extortive profit-making.

I guess it’s safe to say that the whole-day protest actions held last Tuesday were successful. Though we all hope that the SC would side with the people when they shall pass down the verdict, one can’t help but feel a little bit apprehensive about it since there is always a possibility that there is already a decision in favor of Meralco and that the oral arguments are a mere formality; or in other words: “lutong macau”, just like in the ERC.

In a recent turn of events, Meralco said that they didn’t really mean to raise the rates because they ‘accidentally’ bought the shares of TMO at P62 per share at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). Rep. Colmenares of Bayan Muna rightfully called them out that they shouldn’t have the consumers pay for their mistakes. This kind of reminded me of a rather sarcastic but truthful definition of austerity: “Austerity is where the poor pays for the mistakes of the rich.”

I think that this Meralco fiasco is turning out to be the Enron scandal of the early 2000’s. But the difference is that Enron eventually closed down and its top executives were held accountable. Here in our country, nothing has happened yet to the oligarchs that own and control Meralco as well as the ones who manage the ERC, the supposed energy regulatory body in the country. We can only hope that at the very least, these oligarchs get jailed for their unrepentant greed.

Meanwhile, DOTC Secretary Emilio Abaya announced that they are not going to implement yet the proposed fare hike of the MRT-LRT railways, saying that they have considered the issue of the TRO on Meralco’s rate hike. They said that they didn’t want to be insensitive to the public by imposing the increased fares alongside Meralco’s rate increase. Based from their statement, does it mean that they’re going to implement the fare hike when Meralco wins its case in the SC? And isn’t it also insensitivity on their part if they decide to implement the fare hike? This is a statement made in bad faith, for they are hiding their true intentions under the cloak of sympathizing with the burdened public.

These shenanigans have been going on for too long under the US-Aquino regime. Heartless, callous; these adjectives fit this present administration to the tee. Ever since Noynoy Aquino was appointed by the machinery of the imperialist US and the local elite, he has been hell-bent on pleasing his local and foreign masters at the expense of the public. Until now, he continues to hide under his security blanket of his fantastic “Tuwid na Daan” mantra that was obviously created by his handlers. These past three years have not shown a “Tuwid na Daan” but a “Huwad na Daan”; a fraudulent straight path that only goes straight into an abyssal misery and no alibis from the likes of the Yellows will ever perfume this decomposing regime.

The bureaucrat-capitalists alongside the large bourgeoisie-compradors have maintained their clout in society only because they have conspired with one another in maintaining the status quo, all the while putting up the illusory Potemkin village of “freedom” and “democracy” by means of the mainstream media to control the backward populace. Only through organized action can we challenge the organized greed and fascism of the status quo and end our misery, for the ones in power are not that willing to give up their power so easily.

To end this, let me quote from “Papuri sa Pag-aaral” (In Praise of Study):

“Pag-aralan ang kalagayan/Ng ating lipunan/Iwaksi maling kaisipan/Nang mapalaya ang bayan” (Study the conditions of our society/dispel wrong ideas/for the sake of the masses’ freedom”