The Meralco flap
by Kristine Joyce G. Magadia and Apple Jean C. Martin
PJR Reports’s follow-up on last month’s monitor of the media coverage of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) controversy shows that media still failed to explain such important issues as the reasons behind high power rates.
Most reports on the Meralco stockholders’ meeting last May 27 portrayed the meeting as a contest for power between the Lopez family and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Following the meeting, the reports focused on the Meralco board’s supposed defiance of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) cease and desist order and on the ensuing word war between such key personalities as First Philippine Holdings Corporation chairman and chief executive officer Oscar Lopez and GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia.
Those aspects of the issue most pertinent to the public’s understanding of it remained unexplained. The media did not look into Garcia’s claim that GSIS could lower power rates by 10 to 20 percent two months after it takes over the management of Meralco. Only a few reports checked if the intrusion of a court or a quasi-judicial body like SEC in a company dispute would have serious implications on corporate operations.
Reports on the issue also did not look into the impact of electricity costs on the inflation rate—an issue of public concern in an era of high inflation.
Neither did the reports examine the impact on the 2008 national budget of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s unsustainable lifeline subsidies program. The government claimed that the P2-billion budget for the lifeline dole-outs was being sourced from the value-added tax on petroleum products. However, the media did not check if it would affect the budget for other government projects or if it would affect the country’s debt payment obligations.
PJR Reports monitored the news pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, BusinessWorld, and BusinessMirror; the primetime news programs of GMA-7, ABS-CBN 2, and government-owned NBN-4; and news online sites from May 20, a week before the stockholders’ meeting, to June 10.
Showbiz flare
The media took up actress Judy Ann Santos’s Meralco ad, but did not look into the others, and into the question of who was paying for them—an issue of special relevance when it comes to the obvious involvement of government agencies.
The Santos ad, which earned the ire of various cause-oriented groups and opposition politicians, likened the systems loss to a piece of melting ice’s loss of volume as it is transported from one place to another. According to the advertisement, charging consumers the cost of systems loss is legal and government-approved.
While dutifully reporting the complaints of various stakeholders against the infomercial, the media did not verify if the claims of the infomercial and other print advertisements placed by Meral-co as well as the government in the broadsheets and in the major TV stations were indeed factual.
Biases
The competition between the networks was evident in the reports. The bias of GMA-7 against its top rival—another Lopez-owned entity—ABS-CBN 2 showed, for example, in a June 7 Imbestigador special report on the controversy.
While the report had its positive side, this was overshadowed when it became biased for Garcia. The program did air the side of the Meralco management but did not give it enough air time to defend itself.It also aired Garcia’s claims against Meralco without verification. Imbestigador also highlighted Meralco customers’ ire on the company’s alleged inaction on their concerns and even highlighted how the program itself allegedly helped these customers.
NBN-4 was up to its usual tricks. Teledyaryo, NBN-4’s news program, aired a number of reports criticizing Meralco for the high cost of electricity rates without getting Meralco’s side. It relentlessly emphasized govern-ment’s denial of plans for the takeover of Meralco, while claiming that GSIS control would result in lower electricity rates.
Teledyaryo emphasized the alleged efforts of the government to reduce power rates and to mitigate their impact on the public. Allegations of government officials against Meralco were presented in the reports without corroboration and without being contested.
Bright spots
However, some reports did try to provide the public the information it needs on an issue vital to millions of families’ daily survival.
The Inquirer published a two-part special report last May 26 to 27 on electricity rates. “What Meralco has been charging its customers” provided a detailed discussion of the different components of a Meralco electricity bill, while “Meralco swamped with refund claims” looked into the refunds Meralco is obligated to give.
Although PJR Reports did not include it in its monitor, it should be noted that The Manila Times reported that the commission may “scare away” and create “discontent” on the part of foreign investors (“SEC intervention may scare away foreign investors,” May 28). The Times is one of the first media organizations to discuss the effect of SEC intervention in the business community.
While most other reports failed to seek experts’ views, Newsbreak solicited Energy Council of the Philippines president and former Department of Energy Secretary Francisco Viray’s perspective on such issues such as why the country’s electricity rate has remained among the highest in Asia (“Viray: Power sector reforms have been overtaken by events” http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content &task=view&id=4726&Itemid =88889065, May 22). |
