Communist threats trip up power sector plans in the Philippines
Communist threats trip up power sector plans in the Philippines
By Rene Flipo
MANILA (AFP): Threats from communist guerrillas to target executives of foreign oil firms who have petitioned the Philippine government to raise prices of petroleum products complicates the task of building up the power sector.
Police units have been put on alert and foreign oil firms have taken steps to guard against terrorist attacks and kidnap attempts.
The Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), the urban assassination team of the communist insurgency, warned in a "declaration of war" faxed to the press over the weekend that it would attack oil executives for their request to raise state-controlled fuel prices.
"This time we will not hesitate to target main personalities in the industry responsible for this hike," said the ABB, which has been blamed for killing more than 100 policemen, soldiers and civilians in Manila in the 1980s.
The three oil giants involved in the petition -- Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp. and Caltex (Philippines) Inc. -- have said privately that they are not taking the threats lightly.
Shell and Caltex are subsidiaries of the Royal Dutch Shell group and U.S.-based Caltex Petroleum Corp., respectively, while Petron is split between the Philippine government and Saudi Aramco.
They have asked the government to grant them an average increase of 1.19 pesos (0.04 cents) a liter on petroleum products.
But the Energy Department said the increase should only be an average 0.83 pesos per liter.
Leftist groups have already threatened to stage street protests if the government grants the petition of the oil companies. Hikes in fuel prices have long been politically explosive in this country.
Shell spokesman Eduardo Mapa said steps have been taken to protect the company's executives but he failed to spell them out.
The communist threats come on top of a Moslem fundamentalist insurgency in the southern Philippines where there are constant killings and kidnappings.
For the first time, a foreign company has cited security reasons to pull out of a major investment project: British electricity producer Powergen International said earlier this week it had withdrawn a bid to build a 200-million-dollar, 200- megawatt power plant on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
Powergen, along with several local firms, as well as Consolidated Electric Power Asia of Hong Kong and U.S. firms Bechtel Corp. and AES Transpower Private Ltd., were bidding to set up the coal-fired power plant in Mindanao under a build- operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.
Charles Sandham, business manager of Powergen, said the decision was made after Moslem gunmen, believed to be Islamic fundamentalists, pillaged and burned the Mindanao town of Ipil last April, leaving more than 50 people dead.
Meanwhile, the Philippines' police Director General Recaredo Sarmiento said local police commanders, particularly those in Manila, should intensify security around gasoline company facilities and oil industry leaders.
Sarmiento said the police were "not taking the threat lightly and cautions all potential targets to be on the guard."
Identity checks have been enforced since Tuesday in Manila's Makati commercial and financial center and at entry points to main residential.
Some businessmen, however, say they do not wish to exaggerate the situation in Manila where insecurity and violence are part of daily life.
"It is on the whole normal for the Philippines," a French businessman said.
Caltex Philippines president William Tiffany also made light of the threat from the ABB and protests against the appeal for a rise in prices, calling them "blips on the screen" which U.S. firms considered before investing in the Philippines.
Tiffany said the Philippines remained "one of the most exciting investment opportunities in the world."