EVER-CHANGING: Being among the biggest electricity consumers in the country, members of the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines have a vested right to express concern over bloated power rates as they did in a recent letter to President Gloria Arroyo.

It does not speak well of lawmakers to snap at the JFC in anger when it merely echoed the sentiments of foreign and local institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and local businesses affected by moves to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001.

Many of these firms went into business here or gave huge loans to power companies venturing into the risky Philippine market within the framework of Epira. It would be unsettling for them to now see that law revamped in midstream.

Our politicians must stop luring investors with glowing promises of a level field sweetened with incentives – only to slap them (after they have come in) with extortionist and ever-changing policies.

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MEDDLING: In a scathing privilege speech, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said Monday that foreign investors, whom he called “carpetbaggers, predators, and buccaneers,” have no right to meddle in the country’s political process.

“To them, I say, the hell with you, get out of this country,” he said. “if you want to do business under the system with us, to those who are lecturing to us, enough is enough. It is not right for foreigners to be meddling in our affairs.”

Enrile is the principal author of the proposed amendments, including the lowering of the threshold for privatization from 70 percent to 50 percent of the generating plants of the National Power Corp. and its Independent Power Producers.

When the threshold is reached, “open access” sets in, which means that consumers using at least one megawatt would be allowed to choose their own electricity supplier.

Lowering the threshold to 50 percent would also leave half of generating assets in the sticky hands of a clique at the Napocor not known for its efficiency and transparency.

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ATTITUDES: The Senate now wants JFC members to appear before it in a public hearing. A recasting of attitudes on both sides will be helpful.

Instead of harping on their differences, lawmakers and these big consumers should spend time enlarging their areas of agreement — one of which is the lowering of power rates. Putting their heads together, they can come up with brilliant rate-reducing measures.

It does not make sense turning off foreign investors at this time. There is no local entity with the financial capability to put up the infrastructure needed to generate our projected power requirement in the next couple of years.

We cannot talk of development, and the administration cannot realize its dream of a sustained 7-percent-plus growth, without powering up the industrial base of a resurgent economy.

Even assuming we have the generation capability needed, if the rates are prohibitive, foreign investors looking for cheap rates will stay away, and native consumers will continue to groan under a regime of rising costs.

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INTOLERANCE: In its letter to the President, the JFC merely aired its concern on power issues and what it thinks are the best options to lower the rates.

On the issue of fair and lower rates, its concerns coincided with that of the average household reeling from costs padded by double taxation, fuel overpricing, slipping into the bill of dubious charges for systems loss and inefficiency.

The joint chambers made legitimate observations that must be faced squarely and objectively. In our democratic and free-trade setting, every tax-paying sector has the right to be heard.

It is the height of intolerance for anyone, even a senator, to tell a business sector offering suggestions to shut up.

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PREMATURE: Majority of JFC members are big consumers. Only a tiny fraction of the members represents power producers. For lawmakers to assume that the JFC is lobbying for the power producers is unfair and uncalled for.

Postscript agrees with the JFC in opposing Epira’s amendment when that law has not been given a chance to prove itself or to achieve the objectives – such as lower rates – for which it was enacted.

Amending Epira prematurely will reinforce the bad image of government, especially in the eyes of financial institutions that had helped investors put up new power plants. These institutions extended them loans in the context of Epira.

Epira made the power industry more attractive because it promoted open and true competition. If that law were revamped now, what would happen to the requirements and projections that were the feasibility basis for the funding of power plants?

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THE FIRM: In Makati, meanwhile, Branch 5 of the Regional Trial Court is expected today to hand down its long-delayed decision on an interesting criminal libel case against The Daily Tribune publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares and several others.

Several complaints were filed starting in May 2003 by the managing director, Pancho Villaraza, of the law firm that has come to be known as “The Firm,” which reputedly had Malacanang connections.

The defendants were accused of publishing articles on the building of the NAIA Terminal 3 by Piatco wherein The Firm was allegedly pictured as having attempted to make money off Piatco and its German partners whose contract was being rescinded.

The alleged line was that The Firm would save the deal for Piatco and the Germans — for a fat fee.