TACLOBAN CITY – Members of the Freedom form Debt Coalition based in the city tagged a noise barrage Wednesday night to protest the power rates proposed the National Power Corporation.

Rey Enales, secretary general of the FDC-Eastern Visayas, told Leyte Samar Daily Express that their protest, participated also by some non- government organizations and students and youth sectors, was their way of showing their opposition to another power rate increase as this would be another “unnecessary burden to the people.”

“It is not timely. The people are now suffering too much…brought about by almost successive increases of commodities, fare and even fuels,” he said during a telephone interview.

According to Enales, the state-owned NPC is proposing to increase by P0.22 per kilowatt-hour the existing P2.5238/kiliowatt hour for the entire Visayas Island.

If the Energy Regulatory Commission would approve this proposal of the NPC, Enales added, the power rate per kilowatt-hour in the Visayas, to include Eastern Visayas, source of the world’s biggest geothermal would stand at P2.7438/kilowatt-hour.

“If we allow this to happen, it would result to some (domino) effects. Prices of commodities, for one, would soar anew. At this time that we Filipinos barely survive, any increase would not be welcomed,” Enales told Express.

He claimed that any new powe5er rate increase is “immoral” as then reason cited by the NPC why it was demanding for an increase was to pay its huge debts it has incurred through the years.

“The reason why the NPC is demanding for a new power rate is not to improve its services to the people but for it to pay its onerous debts. This is unfair not only among power consumers but to all Filipino people,” Enales said.