Union demands transparency in sale of Transco
Vincent Cabreza, Northern Luzon Bureau
Philippine Daily Inquirer
BAGUIO CITY — THE EMPLOYEES’ union of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) has gone to the streets, seeking public support after it challenged the government’s decision to sell the state-owned firm.
The Luzon chapter members of the Mindanao Transco Employees Association (Mintrea) distributed fact sheets to about 300 Baguio pedestrians on Saturday that alleged a conspiracy to hasten the privatization of the country’s major power grid.
Walder Revelar, Mintrea north Luzon president, said the group needs to show consumers the reasons they sued the government before the Ombudsman for concealing the facts behind the Transco sale.
The suit, filed by Mintrea on June 25, wants the Ombudsman to order the government to release the details of Transco’s sale to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) because union members had not been given guarantees about their continued employment.
Influential
Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp., which owns NGCP, won the bid for the Transco grid operations last year.
Monte Oro has been associated with businessman Ricky Razon, who runs key ports in Manila and abroad and is a key supporter of President Macapagal-Arroyo.
Razon, who served as treasurer of the administration Senate ticket Team Unity in the last elections, is also considered to be one of the most influential businessmen in the country today.
Officials of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., which is auctioning off all government facilities, and the National Economic Development Authority, which supervises the government’s privatization efforts, are principal subjects of the complaint.
Record time
Transco manages the Luzon power grid and transmits power that flows through households in the rest of the country.
“The public needs to learn that government is repeating the abuses we all suffered when it deregulated the power industry and broke up the National Power Corp.,” Revelar said.
According to the Mintrea fact sheet, Congress has been rushing the passage of a franchise law for NGCP while the firm “continues to stonewall Mintrea’s demands for [a written assurance] that they will absorb everyone [working in Transco].”
‘Sweetheart deal’
While negotiations continue, it said the House of Representatives and the Senate managed to shepherd their respective measures to second reading in record time.
The absence of transparency had made the union “too nervous” about the sale, Revelar said.
The Mintrea fact sheet said Transco’s sale was “a sweetheart deal” for NGCP because it stands “to earn between P18 billion and P20 billion in net profits annually” and would recover its investments “in just four to five years of operations.”
“If you find all these [details] unfavorable not only for all Transco workers but for all Filipinos, then you are not alone… This leaves us no other option but to close ranks and rally behind Mintrea,” it said.
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