Energy Secretary Jericho Carlos Petilla. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net
Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla intends to resign after failing to keep a promise to restore electricity to all typhoon-ravaged areas by Christmas Eve.
“I’m not quitting on the people,” the head of the Department of Energy (DOE) said in a text message to the Inquirer last night. “I’m simply keeping my word, which I find is the essence of my being in public service.”
Petilla declined further comment on a statement issued by presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda earlaier Wednesday on ABS-CBN television.
“He intends to submit his resignation, perhaps by tomorrow. Whether the President will accept his resignation, let us wait for that conversation to take place,” Lacierda said after speaking to the energy chief.
Petilla earlier promised to restore electricity to all towns hit by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” by Christmas Eve but failed to reconnect the supply to three towns, Lacierda said.
He said Petilla had done an “admirable job” considering the scale of the disaster.
While power has been restored in a few selected areas in the affected towns, many districts still have no electricity after the storm tore down power lines across a wide area on Nov. 8.
The government disaster monitoring agency reported that there were still power outages throughout the provinces hit by the typhoon, one of the worst natural disasters to strike the country.
On Christmas Eve, Petilla said in a phone interview with the Inquirer that the last five major towns out of the 257 affected by the typhoon had been reenergized.
He said he was getting ready for a meeting today with officials of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), power generation firms and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (spot market operator) on how to share the higher cost of power that could not be collected from consumers for now due to the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order issued on Monday.
However, reports on Christmas Day said Petilla would hand over his resignation to President Aquino on Thursday.
Apparently, he had just found out there were still three towns without electricity and that overnight efforts to light them up had failed. It seems that, technically, Petilla failed to deliver and must now resign, as he had promised.
Petilla did not answer calls and text messages on whether he would indeed quit, but sources in what the energy chief calls his “DOE family” said that an appointment was still being sought at Malacañang regarding his resignation.
On Tuesday, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said there was no reason for Petilla to quit since much of the Yolanda-hit areas had already been energized.
Petilla took office as DOE secretary on Nov. 2012, replacing Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras. Before then, or since 2004, he served as governor of Leyte—one of the areas torn by Yolanda’s strong winds and storm surges. With a report from AFP
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