Anakpawis, KMU see rotating brownouts as Arroyo’s muscle-flexing for no-el, no-proc

Anakpawis Partylist and Kilusang Mayo Uno call on the Filipino workers and people to intensify our vigilance amid rotating brownouts in Luzon and key cities in Mindanao. We see the power outages as the Arroyo regime’s muscle-flexing for sabotage operations for the coming May elections which will pave the way for a no-election (no-el) or no-proclamation (no-proc) scenario, and will allow Arroyo to stay in power.

Rotating brownouts serve to condition the public for the highly possible failure of the country’s first automated polls, on top of glaring technical problems which have pestered it in the first place.

The justification of rotating brownouts is highly suspect: Why is it that three Luzon power plants all broke down at the same time due to mere “technical problems”? Why is it that brownouts are made to be erratic and unadvised? Is this the scientific way of repairing power utilities? Is the regime testing the waters for a no-el or no-proc scenario? Our suspicions are no less than reasonable.

What is also alarming is that this kind of “rotating darkness” coincides with Arroyo racing towards the use of emergency powers to supposedly solve the power crisis in Mindanao after the House Committee on Energy has just granted her these powers.

We gravely suspect that this knee-jerk reaction forms part of Arroyo’s dark plot to cling to power and shield herself from prosecution. Why were the solons, especially Energy Committee Chair and presidential son Mikey Arroyo, so eager to deliberate on the power crisis and endorse emergency powers for the president while more important legislation to address the workers’ and peoples’ livelihood are being shunned?

Provisions of the EPIRA that enable government to use emergency powers to buy out or lease generation assets are being used by the Arroyo regime as leeway to fine-tune sabotage operations for the May elections. Worse, Arroyo may use the special session of Congress to pursue her Charter change (Cha-cha) bid.

We are living in dark times indeed, with threats to the successful conduct of elections staring us in the face. Once again, the Filipino workers and people are called upon to wield our unity in opposing the devious ploys of the Arroyo regime to prolong its hold on power. We vow to show this rotting regime that even blackouts will not stop another People Power uprising from erupting. #