Surigao Norte lawmaker denies pressuring power coop

Surigao del Norte Representative Francisco Matugas Photo from www.congress.gov.ph

SURIGAO CITY, Philippines – A lawmaker who has been accused of interfering in a power cooperative deal here has been forced to issue a denial that he had tried pressuring a local power utility into buying overpriced generator sets.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Francisco T. Matugas (1st District) issued the denial after an anti-graft Facebook group— “Sa Ngalan ng Gobyerno” or SNG— posted a photo of him with a caption alleging that the lawmaker has been trying to act as a go-between for the purchase of five 2-megawatt generator sets for the Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Surneco).

“Cummings generator sets cost $100,000 per megawatt but the price Matugas wants to buy is $500,000 per megawatt for diesel generator set. He is reported to be pressuring the Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative Inc., officials led by president Mario Gesta, to work to secure the 10- megawatt diesel generator set,” the posting reads.

The SNG post has since gone viral and spilled into other anti-corruption Facebook groups, such as “Expose Graft and Corruption in Government.” Together, both groups have a combined following of 30,000 Facebook users.

Matugas refuted the claims, saying he was not a recipient of any congressional allocation from the Malampaya fund, whose release the Supreme Court has temporarily stopped, along with the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The Malampaya fund refers to the royalties the national government collects from the proceeds of the sale of the Malampaya gas.  The funds are supposed to fund energy-related projects.

“I have no funding from Malampaya fund before, now or under the proposal for gensets,” the lawmaker said in a text message to Philippine Daily Inquirer, referring to a government program that provides a loan facility to electric cooperatives for the acquisition of modular generator sets.

The lawmaker also denied he was meddling in the affairs of Surneco and its officials have also come out to deny social media postings against Matugas.

Surneco General Manager Narciso Caliao Jr. confirmed the utility’s plan to buy five generator sets at 2-megawatt each using the Malampaya-funded loan facility, amid the uproar generated by the daily power outages in the province.

Caliao said they have been looking at spending some P160 million for the generator sets.

Caliao denied that Matugas exerted pressure on, or tried to influence, the Surneco board on the planned generator set purchase.

Dubbed as the “Mindanao Modular Generator Sets Program” and established through Executive Order No. 137 in July, the program has a P4.5 billion funding sourced from the Malampaya funds.

Still, Matugas described the negative online postings about him as “political disinformation.”

The lawmaker also called the plunder case filed against him by local citizens early this year as “political harassment.” The plunder charge was based on the Commission on Audit (COA) report that said Matugas had earmarked some P64 million of his PDAF as intelligence funds for local government officials.

Matugas was among those implicated in the irregular use of PDAF among lawmakers after a COA report showed that he endorsed close to P19 million of public funds for projects proposed by questionable non-government organizations (NGOs).