Provision of public utilities and services is part of the state’s obligations to the people. It is part of its mandate to ensure adequate and affordable, if not free, social services for the masses. As well as to protect them from unreasonable fees, paltry service and other forms of abuse. Were these things not just a few of their promises whilst courting the Bikolanos for their votes last elections? It is high time for them to make good of their word. It is only judicious for Bikolanos to rally outside these politicians’ offices from the local to the national levels and demand swift and decisive action from the government on this issue.

These past few months, the Bikolano masses have been once more beleaguered by consecutive price hikes in commodities and utilities while their wages have remained dismal. The recurrence of electricity price hikes, infirm water services and other utilities in the Bikol region is very concerning. This is not the first time that the Bikolano masses have been faced with this problem of utility prices and it definitely will not be the last.

This has been an age-old modus operandi primarily to drive privatization of public electric cooperatives. To give cause for this goal, numerous reasons will be surfaced such as unpaid debts of cooperatives, recurrent service failure, erroneous meter readings and many other. This was the Bikolanos experience in Albay, wherein the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) was bought out by the San Miguel Corporation and was replaced by the Albay Power and Energy Cooperation (APEC). Currently, the said private corporation is responsible for countless obligations especially towards the Albayanos who have never received satisfactory service from it ever since. It is not farfetched that other cooperatives in the region such as that in Sorsogon suffer from the same fate.

Decade after decade of this reactionary government’s prioritization of privatization and deregulation of public utilities and services have led the people to shoulder the nightmare of flailing services and exorbitant fees. The government’s protection of businesses and concessionaires’ interests for the longest time have caused the uncontrollable and arbitrary spikes in utility prices. As the few’s riches overflow, the average Filipino drowns from fees and dues.

It is unsurprising that in the face of these gigantic burdens and the contrasting measly wages of the common Bikolano, many are driven to mendicancy just for derisory ayuda. This system has turned the people who should have been afforded these services by their government to pitiful beggars.

NDF-Bikol encourages the Bikolano masses to fight for their right to affordable and adequate public utilities and services. They should not tolerate these excessive and unjustifiable electricity charges even if these are veiled with the excuse of oil price hikes. The state that neglects its people and freely allows the businesses to control this industry must be the one to shoulder these obligations and not the public. All the Bikolanos from the six provinces of the region must unite in demanding their democratic demands and holding the government accountable for its responsibilities to the people.