News Briefs: May 1, 2019

Cop’s  presence in Comelec warehouse questioned

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday said it was looking into the alleged inspection conducted by the Philippine National Police in its warehouse in Baguio City.

A photo of a police officer who appears to be inspecting vote-counting machines and other election paraphernalia at the Comelec warehouse in Baguio City earlier surfaced on social media.

“If the police officer went into a Comelec facility without authorization, then that is not allowed. They can’t even do that in a polling place without the authorization of the board of election inspectors. That’s pretty clear,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez in a press briefing.

“This (incident) should be taken very seriously by the Comelec as (it could) cast doubt not only on its independence, but on the very integrity of the upcoming polls,” said Emilio Maranon III in the letter he submitted on behalf of senatorial candidate Chel Diokno, the lawyer of opposition party Otso Diretso. —Tina  G. Santos

Solon says ERC to impose fines on erring power producers

MANILA, Philippines — The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is poised to impose penalties on power generators that tend to undergo a lot of planned or forced outages to get them to improve their service and ensure a steady supply of energy for the country, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said, citing his meeting on Monday with the ERC.

The penalties could come in three to five months, with fines ranging from P50,000 to P50 million, the senator said.

At a recent hearing of the Senate energy committee, Gatchalian lamented that there was no incentive for power producers to improve their performance, as there were no penalties and they could shift added costs from outages to consumers.

In the same hearing, Anne Estorco-Macias, president of the Philippine Independent Power Producers Association, warned that imposing penalties could scare off investors. —Leila B. Salaverria