Arroyo dared to revoke EO on Hanjin

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was challenged on Wednesday by a militant lawmaker to revoke her executive order that gave power subsidies to a Korean company now under fire for its construction of two condominium buildings in Subic in the province of Zambales.

Arroyo signed Executive Order 701 in January 22 this year directing the National Transmission Commission (Transco) to give the controversial Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines a discount on transmission and generation charges for 10 years.

“If its claim that it is not giving special treatment to Hanjin is true, then we dare the government to remove the power subsidies given to the company,” Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros said in a statement.

For the first six years, Hontiveros said, Hanjin would be given discounted generation and transmission rates of $0.0491, and this would increase to $0.0600 for the remaining four years.

“This is a hefty discount considering the power needs of an industrial firm and compared to the P5 per kilowatt hour rate imposed on Filipino consumers to cover NPC’s [National Power Commission’s] charge and Transco’s transmission charge,” she said. - asianjournal.