"Wala pa naman tayong maipapakitang magaling ng pagpapatakbo ng korporasyon. Dapat ay hinay- hinay sa mga ganyang government takeover (We can’t show anything that can prove we are good at running corporations. We should go slow in any government takeover)," Villar said.

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said government takeover of businesses imbued with public interest such as the Meralco might just be a "knee-jerk" response to current concerns, but would not squarely deal with the problems.

"Our experience with government taking over key businesses directly affecting our lives, such as power and water, has proved to be unfavorable. Stories abound as to how numerous government- owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) have been run to the ground, while its officers have abused their posts for personal gain. This is a sad reality when government attempts to go into endeavors best left to the private sector. Ang problema rito ay kung mapagkakatiwalaan ba natin ang gobyernong mahusay na makapagptakbo ng mga kumpanyang ito (The problem is, can we trust the government to effectively run companies?)," Pangilinan asked.

But Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. saw the current developments over Meralco differently. He said he believes the threat of a takeover of Meralco by Malacañang to lower power costs is nothing but a ploy to compel its sister company, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., to stop being critical of the Arroyo administration.

Pimentel said President Arroyo and her advisers know that it would be a folly to push for a state takeover of Meralco because of the dismal record of government in managing business enterprises, the stigma of corruption, hanging over the administration, and because it would be totally inconsistent with its much-ballyhooed privatization policy in the power sector.

"We do not like the government taking over Meralco. But I’m sure that is not the intention of GMA (President Arroyo). She merely wants to silence the ABS-CBN and other media facilities owned by the Lopezes (majority stockholders of Mercalco) so they can be used for the propaganda of the administration," he said.

Pimentel said a state takeover of Meralco would be contradictory to the government policy laid down under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to privatize the stateowned National Power Corporation (Napocor).

The yarn that government may take over Meralco or to replace the Lopez group in managing the power distribution firm looks all the more pathetic, given the big financial losses incurred by Napocor from the operations of its power plants and other assets, he said.

Stressing that he is no apologist of Meralco, Pimentel criticized the power utility giant for its practice of passing on to consumers so-called "systems losses," which are due to pilferage of power and illegal connections.

"Why should the system’s losses of Meralco and other power utility companies, require their customers to shoulder their system losses? That is totally unfair, because it is not their fault that Meralco is incurring system losses," he said.

Malacañang had hinted that the government is consolidating its holdings in Meralco for a major showdown with the Lopez group for management control of the firm when its stockholders meet on May 27.

This prompted Oscar Lopez, patriarch of the Philippine business family that controls Meralco, the country’s biggest power utility firm, to declare that he wants to sell the family’s stake in the company, following government pressure to lower electric power rates.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was quoted as saying that the government could take over Meralco if it chooses to do so. The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), through its president, Winston Garcia, has been girding for a showdown with the Lopez group.

The GSIS holds a fourth of Mercalco"s shares. Administration Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, cochairperson of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) which conducts a public hearing Monday morning on the question of why power rates in the Meralco service areas are very high, said last Thursday:

"I will ask Garcia to enumerate as briefly as possible the ways in which he thinks Meralco has bee1n mismanaged, resulting in very high electricity rates. We in the Powercom (JCPC) are concerned over the issue of very high electricity rates."