Senators split on special powers for President

President Benigno Aquino III INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senators disagree over whether Congress should grant President Benigno Aquino III special powers to deal with the power crisis in Mindanao.

Senator Panfilo Lacson claimed he heard the President himself say during a party hosted by Cavite Representative Ayong Maliksi that the administration “is already addressing the problem” that Mr. Aquino blamed on “decades of neglect, including failure to upgrade very old and obsolete equipment.”

“I bet those who are proposing such special powers don’t even have an idea of what powers they are talking about,” Lacson said.

Senator Francis Pangilinan said the decision to grant emergency powers should not be rushed, noting that consumers faced higher electricity rates after Congress gave the same to President Fidel Ramos in 1993. “At that time, that was the last thing we needed,” he stressed.

Earlier reports said the special powers, if given to the President, would be used to buy electricity from private producers.

The House of Representatives has already indicated willingness to hold a special session so it could pass a law granting these powers. But the President is not inclined to call for such session.

Palace: No

A terse “no” was the reply of presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda when asked about the House move on Wednesday.

Asked whether the President was still open to the grant of special powers, Lacierda said: “Some members of Congress have been vocal about granting emergency powers to the President but as they say, the devil is in the details.”

Told that Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon had filed a bill allowing Mr. Aquino to suspend the law on public bidding of contracts  to enter into negotiated contracts for the deployment of power barges in Mindanao, Lacierda said the Palace still needed to “see all the details.”

Lacierda made it clear that the power outages in Mindanao were not as bad as pictured. “Only 40 percent of Mindanao has recurring two or three hour outages and not eight hours as stated by some quarters,” he said in a text message.

He maintained that Energy Secretary Jose Almendras “has been addressing the problems in Mindanao as early as October 2010 and, in fact, (he) met with the Mindanao solons and power producers.”

Lacierda said base load plants would take about three years to be constructed and they expected 250 megawatts of power to come on stream by 2014.

Powers to do what?

Senator Sergio Osmeña III, chairman of the Senate committee on energy, said those clamoring for emergency powers for the President must first clarify what exactly they want him to have.

“The powers to do what? What will we buy? I am asking my colleagues to please study the problem,” he said during a news conference.

However, Osmeña said, concerned parties would do well right now to plan the construction of more power plants in advance.

“A power plant is not like a battery you purchase and get power from. It takes three to five years to put up a concept, the land preparation, getting permits, signing the contract, achieve a financial close and construction,” he explained.

Osmeña reminded the President’s supporters and members of Congress that emergency powers would not necessarily hasten the process of adding new power plants to those existing and incapable of supplying Mindanao’s needs.

Despite emergency powers, he said, “we cannot build plants overnight and the only plants available to cover the power shortfall are power barges.”

Standby power

Senator Francis Escudero, however, believes the President should be granted even more than the special powers. “He should be granted standby power in case of extraordinary situations that he can exercise at his own sound discretion without having to run to Congress every now and then and wait for its imprimatur,” he said.

Escudero clarified that the standby power extended to the President “should be defined within the framework of extreme circumstances and limitations … It should ensure not to replicate the same mistakes of the past where instead of finding solutions, people were made to suffer more.”

The senator recalled that 40 independent power producers signed contracts with the “take or pay” provisions with the government after Ramos was given emergency powers during his term.

Escudero said the move “only spawned an oversupply of power plants and forced consumers to shoulder energy costs that they did not use.”

Senator Gregorio Honasan also expressed doubts whether emergency powers are necessary at this point. “Is there really an emergency?” he asked during a phone patch interview with reporters.

Warning raised

House members yesterday warned the President against using hackneyed solutions to the power crunch proposed by his allies in Congress.

Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño said giving emergency powers was practically what the private power producers had wanted when they allowed the power supply problem to worsen in the last two years.

“The emergency power being contemplated aims to do away with public bidding and allows President Aquino to negotiate contracts with IPPs (independent power producers)  a la Ramos. This is exactly what the private companies want given that it’s a sellers market due to the supposed shortage,” Casiño said in a text message.

Sweetheart deals

“The situation and the solution offered by the President’s allies are a sure formula for onerous and oppressive sweetheart contracts,” he added.

Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez said Mindanao lawmakers would oppose any plan to leave the state-owned power barges in the hands of the private power producers who have been charging businessmen and residents in the region exorbitant rates.

“After the Department of Energy has done nothing to resolve the crisis in the last two years, our power costs have increased by almost five times when the private power barges were the only ones left with the supply,”  Rodriguez said in a phone interview.  With a report from Gil Cabacungan