Mga Cebuano proud ba ni Winston Garcia?

[giddyboy]

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dili jud ko proud ani niya..klaro kaau gisugo ra ni cya ni GMA para makuha sa govt ang meralco..asa cya..asa gud tawon i-give up sa lopezes ang meralco..nahan man sad na si garcia na cya makatag-iya sa meralco kai 30% sa meralco kai GSIS tag-iya..

Winston Garcia does not own GSIS or GSIS's 30% share in Meralco. He is only the president of GSIS appointed by PGMA. if we say makuha/macontrol sa GSIS ang Meralco, makatag-iya c Winston? or perhaps c PGMA? u mean cla gyud personal owners? lagpasa oi...

even if we say there is a probability that GSIS could control Meralco instead of the Lopezes w/ just cause, ngano man diay? unsa may naa ana? if it results to better management and lower power rates, the hell, i will go for it!!!

[worldwide]

I am not proud of Winston, especially with his arrogant ways.
I don't really believe if his purpose is really to lower the electricity rates. First of all, GSIS invested in Meralco because they believe in Meralco. If you are a shareholder, would you rock the boat knowing that it will result to losses in your stocks investment? So to you the poor GSIS members, your shares has gone south. Your hard earned contributions have just flew away. Thanks to Winston Garcia.

[worldwide]

Winston Garcia is telling us that he can bring down the cost of electricity, of course he can. The government can always reduce napocor's generation charge, transco's transmission charge and taxes. But then again, the only way the govt can to that is by subsidizing napocor and transco, and where will the government get the money? - of course, from its citizen. we pay less to meralco or veco but we will end up paying more to the government.

[infoseeker]

What would VECO -- and Winston Garcia -- stand to gain if Meralco were broken up into smaller companies?

The Arroyo-Lopez War

By Perry Diaz
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:40:00 05/23/2008


Finally, after almost 80 years of a family feud between two wealthy clans, it seems that the final battle has started. On one side of the conflict is the Arroyo clan, wealthy merchants of Chinese origin who gained political supremacy in the early 1900's when their patriarch, Jose Arroyo, was elected Senator in 1919.

With the help of his close friend -- then Senate President Manuel L. Quezon -- his younger brother, Dr. Mariano Arroyo, was appointed provincial governor in 1928.

On the other side is the Lopez clan headed by Eugenio "Eñing" Lopez who used his newspaper El Tiempo -- founded in 1901 by his father Benito Lopez, the first governor of Iloilo in 1906, who was assassinated two years later by a rival political faction -- to expose the jueteng ring that Governor Arroyo and a Chinese trader named Sualoy started in Iloilo. El Tiempo's incessant exposure of the jueteng operations finally paid off. Sualoy was charged, found guilty, imprisoned and deported to China.

That was the beginning of the Arroyo-Lopez War. As a result of the crackdown on the jueteng operations, Governor Arroyo filed a libel suit against Lopez and El Tiempo. Lopez retaliated by filing administrative charges against Governor Arroyo. Governor General Davis was also informed about the case and he sent Judge Francisco Moran to investigate. Moran discovered that Governor Arroyo was involved in the jueteng operations, including a gambling den.

Consequently, Moran dismissed the libel charges against Lopez and his newspaper. In 1930, the administrative trial found Governor Arroyo guilty of corruption and Governor General Davis relieved him from his post.

Humiliated, Jesusa Lacson Arroyo, the widow of Senator Arroyo who died in 1927, picked up the pieces and moved her entire family to Negros Occidental. One of her sons, Ignacio, would become the father of the current First Gentleman, Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo.

Meanwhile, Eugenio Lopez progressed in business; his brother Fernando entered politics and was elected Vice-President three times. Don Eugenio established the first airline in Asia and expanded his newspaper business. In 1962, he purchased Meralco, the country's largest electric company. His son, Eugenio "Geny" Lopez, Jr., built ABS-CBN to become the country's undisputed leader in broadcasting.

In 1972, the Lopez family suffered under the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Geny Lopez was implicated in an alleged plot to kill Marcos. Under obscure circumstances, Lopez escaped from detention and slipped out of the country. Marcos' brother-in-law, Kokoy Romualdez, then took over Meralco. When Marcos was ousted in 1986, Cory Aquino returned Meralco and ABS-CBN to the Lopezes.

For more than 20 years, the Lopezes had undisputed control of Meralco. They also diversified into new business ventures. Over the past several years, ABS-CBN became a pain in the neck of President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo. Their coverage of the various scandals involving the First Couple have contributed much to the Arroyos' negative public image.

It is no wonder then that Meralco is now in the crosshairs of President Arroyo's sight. The joint congressional hearing chaired by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Congressman Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo has stirred to life a family feud dormant for 78 years. There are speculations that the real reason for the Meralco "witch hunt" is for government to take over Meralco and break it up into smaller companies. If this should happen, guess who would take over a divested Meralco?

Let's look at one who has been at the forefront of the battle: Winston Garcia, President and General Manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). His aggressive and arrogant demeanor in the Meralco boardroom -- he is a recent member on the Meralco board, representing GSIS which has 23% ownership of Meralco -- has made a lot of people wonder what his ulterior motive might be. Many believe that Garcia is on the board to wage a "proxy war" for the Arroyos.


For one thing, Garcia is not the typical government bureaucrat. He is a scion of a powerful political dynasty in Cebu with close ties to Malacañang. His father, Pablo, is a congressman and concurrently Deputy Speaker of the House. His brother, Pablo John, is also a congressman. And his sister, Gwendolyn, is the current Governor of Cebu. She announced recently that she is a candidate for Vice President in 2010.

In addition, the Garcia family has large stockholdings in the Aboitiz-owned Visayan Electric Company (VECO), the country's second largest private electric utility. The corporate officers include three Garcias, to wit: Dennis A. Garcia, President and General Manager; Ramontito A. Garcia,Treasurer; and Jess Anthony N. Garcia, legal counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary. Of the 11 members of the VECO Board of Directors, five are Garcias, namely, Dennis N.A. Garcia, Ramontito E. Garcia, Gil A. Garcia II, Charles Sylvester A. Garcia, and Antonio V. A. Garcia de Escaño.

The Aboitizes have five members of the Board. Recently a news account reported that Winston Garcia is serving VECO as a lawyer on retainer. The question is: What would VECO -- and Winston Garcia -- stand to gain if Meralco were broken up into smaller companies?

It is also common knowledge that the Aboitizes are business cronies of the First Couple. With the Lopezes trying hard to defend themselves from a pack of wolves, it would probably take a miracle to survive these attacks. But miracles do happen, and they happen when least expected. The last question is: What would the Arroyos stand to gain if and when Meralco breaks up?


iCON_Computers on May 31, 2008 09:32 AM - User is Online

[ceprince]

lami kaayo siya puspusan og silhig tukog ay! makalagot!!!!!!! grrrrrrr!!!!

[lestat1116]

nagpabilib ni cya kay c gwen mo dagan para vp next election. bsin mo dagan ni cya og senetor or gov dri sa cebu.

[estor_boot]

kaklaro anang gigamit ra si Winston nga attack dog sa Malacañang. if the government wants electricity rates to go down, take over should be the least option. why not scrap anang dagkong taxes nga gipatong sa atong electricity rates? unsa may gamit anang ERC diay? everything these power utility firms collected from us was approved by the ERC. pagka inutil.

MERALCO shares used to be valued at P80+ before, after gibulabog sa Malacañang through Winston Garcia, P50+ na lang. ni decrease ug around P30 multiply that by 256 million shares that GSIS own, that how huge money lost from GSIS members because of Winston's power game?

proud mo ana?

[macme]

nagpa humot ra na cla sa masa

[giddyboy]

kaklaro anang gigamit ra si Winston nga attack dog sa Malacañang. if the government wants electricity rates to go down, take over should be the least option. why not scrap anang dagkong taxes nga gipatong sa atong electricity rates? unsa may gamit anang ERC diay? everything these power utility firms collected from us was approved by the ERC. pagka inutil.

approved lagi sa ERC ang charges but the question is how they (Meralco) arrived at those charges. mao btaw gi imbistigar...

do u know what made the big difference between Meralco rates & Veco rates?

It's not the Generation & Transmission charge (well, a little bit). it's not also the taxes added on top of these charges. anyways, these are not within Meralco's jurisdiction but for Napocor & Transco.

IT IS IN FACT THE Systems Losses charge (SLC) and Distribution Revenues (DR).

Systems Loss Charge accounts for roughly 10% of ur Veco bill. Meralco has higher. of course mas daghan gyud ang pilferage ug kawat sa kuryente sa manila. Pilferage is included as "systems loss". mao btaw it's somehow unjustifiable for good paying consumers to pay for it, including the tax nga gipatong ana. anyways, SLC tax will be abolished for good. With higher SLC, this is how we see possible inefficiencies (and non-transparency) of Meralco management.

Distribution Revenues accounts for roughly 20% of ur Veco bill. Meralco has higher. of course, mas dagko pud ang sweldo ug overhead costs sa Meralco than Veco. if im not mistaken, 97M is the annual pay for Meralco board members & officers. With higher DR, this is also how we see possible inefficiencies, low productivity (and non-transparency) of Meralco management.

Now, the higher the SLC and DR, the higher the VAT u pay. if we total the 2 Veco charges as roughly 30% of ur total bill, VAT for the 2 would roughly be around 4%. A total of 34%. now imagine instead what Meralco bills for these 2 charges + VAT...the sum could be more than 40% of ur total bill !!!

And if we say they can do something to lower down Meralco's "systems loss charge" and "distribution revenues", the taxes on them would follow suit.

It is noted that Meralco charges 10 per kwh as compared to Veco's 6.15 per kwh. That's a very big difference of a WHOOPING 60% compared to Veco. To think that both have almost the same source of power.

NOW, if we say that taking over Meralco is a last resort, does this Meralco case justify one? I think it is, but should be cause for caution. Call it POWER PLAY, but if the act is noble (intend to lower rates), it should be perceived as good. The problem is, this stirs up the stock market & perceived war among Arroyos vs Lopezes will have a drastic effect on the value of shares of Meralco...

It's some sort of a balancing act...

[WAYOK@@]

pabor ko winston.

sayunan ka ana nga systems loss nga kilowatt pabayran sa ordinaryong mga tawo with tax pa. unya ang tanang offices sa meralco walay bayad -bayad ug kuryente kay ang mga tawo pabayron kay naapil na sa systems loss.

kapaet sad ana oi.