‘No urgency in amending Epira’

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma: Need for consensus. PHOTO BY LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Sunday ruled out the possibility that President Aquino would certify for the urgent consideration of Congress amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2011 (Epira) in spite of public outrage over the power rate increases.

“After more than 12 years that the law has been in effect, it’s time to examine its provisions to remove its weaknesses and replace them with those that would serve the welfare of the people,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said in Filipino.

But the Palace would not commit itself when asked if the President would certify as urgent bills seeking to amend the law.

“Before a bill can be certified as urgent, we have to determine first what law would identify the reforms being sought by the different sectors,” Coloma said, citing the need for a “consensus or common ground” among all stakeholders.

“A lot of sectors are involved in this and each of them has a stake,” he said. “We need to hear them and know their position.”

Coloma added: “We will wait for this process and then we will reach the point where we could consider a bill as urgent.”

The House committee on energy is expected to tackle proposals to amend the Epira law once the session resumes later this month, according to its chair, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali.

In a phone interview on Saturday, Umali said the committee’s agenda would include the Meralco rate increase and Epira provisions that needed to be modified.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares earlier Saturday called on Aquino to certify as urgent the bills seeking the repeal of the Epira law, which the Palace had cited in explaining why it could not just magically bring electricity prices down.

“If he truly wants Epira repealed, then classify [the bill] as urgent,” Colmenares said.

Colmenares, one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court against the Meralco rate hike, also criticized the Palace’s claim of helplessness as an attempt to evade responsibility for the rising cost of electricity.