Napocor to lay off 500 workers

Over 500 employees of state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) may lose their jobs by the end of this month with the full privatization of the agency’s assets. Ed Anguluan, Napocor's vice president for human resources, said they will present the reorganization plan to the Napocor board next week or on June 23 when their workforce will be further cut. "We are now in the process of reorganizing our workforce that would cut the level to 51 percent," Anguluan said. He said the workforce streamlining "will affect more than 500" out of Napocor's 2,868 employees as of April this year. Energy Secretary Jose Ibazeta said the retrenchment was due to the privatization of Napocor’s assets in the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao grids. "I look at it very simply, in 2006 before I came in, I believe they had over 6,000 and at that time they had 89 percent of their grid assets. We have sold 98 percent and still have the same number of workforce," Ibazeta said. Napocor was the country's largest power producer before the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001, resulting in the privatization of its assets to provide for retail competition that would lower electricity rates. Proceeds from the privatization would be used to pay the agency’s debts, which reached over $16 billion. Anguluan, on the other hand, assured that the affected employees were provided the necessary training programs as well as livelihood assistance. “We also entered into some arrangements with some private companies if they could get would-be displaced Napocor employees," Anguluan said. - GMANews.TV