Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla: At it again. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—After taking flak for failing to energize by Christmas Eve last year areas that Super Typhoon Yolanda devastated, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla is at it again, setting another target for power restoration in Davao Oriental province.
“Secretary Petilla told President (Aquino) in Tacloban yesterday that DOE (Department of Energy) will ensure full restoration of electricity in all (Typhoon) ‘Pablo’-affected areas within 45 days,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said in a text message.
“He (Petilla) will submit a memo to the President shortly on details of DOE’s action plan,” said Coloma.
Essentially, what the energy chief is saying this time around is that he could achieve in just one and a half months what the DOE had failed to do in one year and two months since Pablo ravaged the Davao Region in December 2012.
57% without power
The latest self-imposed deadline is Petilla’s way of placating the President who, while visiting Cateel, Davao Oriental, on Monday became furious when he learned that power had yet to be restored in 24 barangays (villages), or 57 percent of the province.
Aquino was apparently put on the spot when he was informed no less by the governor, Corazon Malanyaon, in a speech that electricity in more than half of the province had yet to be restored.
Before his visit, Aquino had expected that rehabilitation, including power restoration, would be in full swing because it had been more than a year since Pablo barreled through Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental, Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur provinces, killing more than 1,000 people, destroying livelihood and rendering thousands homeless.
It could not be immediately ascertained if other parts of the region still suffered from power shortage.
Cateel was the only place in the region that was included in the President’s itinerary for a two-day inspection of disaster areas early this week. Besides Davao Oriental, he also inspected the progress of rehabilitation efforts in Bohol, Cebu and Leyte provinces.
‘You’ll be sorry’
Aquino demanded that power be fully restored in Davao Oriental, which bore the brunt of Pablo.
He gave officials he did not identify until next week to comply, or resign.
“We have work to do; do your job or (you’ll be) sorry,” he said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday in Cebu City.
Although the President did not identify him by name, Petilla asked the President to extend the deadline from one week to a non-extendible 45-day period to comply with the directive.
Blame-tossing
At a briefing in Malacañang on Wednesday, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that Aquino was “frustrated” because of blame-tossing and finger-pointing as to which agency should be responsible for restoring power in the Davao Region.
“That’s why it surprised the President … particularly, and which is why it also merited that kind of reaction from the President. And now, steps are being undertaken and he wants to see that those steps are actually fulfilled,” Valte said.
Asked if Petilla would be sacked if he failed to meet his own target this time, she said she didn’t think anyone doubted the seriousness of the President when he made that statement. “You go by the word of the President.”
Valte said Petilla was able to speak to Aquino on Tuesday in Tacloban, where the President led the groundbreaking of the new Eastern Visayas Medical Regional Center.
“If you recall … the frustration of the President when he arrived in Cateel was (due to) the blame-tossing of responsibility. So now the DOE is clearly on point on this, and Secretary Petilla has [promised] the full restoration of electricity in all Pablo-affected areas within 45 days,” she said.
Valte could not offer an explanation for the continued failure to restore power in that province, when reporters pointed out that the President had authorized the release of billions of pesos for power restoration and repair of damaged public infrastructure in the aftermath of Pablo.
“I’m sure the departments can appropriately explain what they’ve done, but now it’s just clear that it’s DOE on point, and that will certainly bolster efforts to restore power on those areas,” she said.
Not energized
Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez denied in an interview, also on Tuesday, that the city was fully energized more than 100 days after Yolanda struck.
Romualdez said only 50 percent of the city had electricity.
Asked to comment, Valte said: “We’ll ask DOE to respond to that because the report that they gave us was that they had already met their target a few days after… You all know what happened to that. But what I understand is that they’ve already achieved their target so, we’ll ask Secretary Petilla to respond to the statement of Mayor Romualdez.”
‘Self-inflicted wound’
Critics earlier scored Petilla for offering to resign when it was clear that he could not deliver on his promise to reenergize all typhoon-ravaged communities in the “whole of Visayas” by Christmas Eve last year.
The critics pointed out that all Petilla had promised was to reconnect the towns to the power grid.
As for the homes, there were few to be reenergized because Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) flattened entire communities in the Visayas.
The Inquirer was present when Petilla, while waiting for the President to arrive in Palo, Leyte, boasted before a group of reporters last November that he could reenergize all Yolanda-affected areas by Christmas Eve.
Since it was barely a week after Yolanda flattened Tacloban and much of Eastern Visayas, the reporters were skeptical.
To which Petilla retorted: “Do you want my position if I don’t (meet the) Dec. 24 (target)? You will have it. If I make it (on) Dec. 25, then I’ll submit my resignation if that is what you want.”
He explained that he was imposing this target because he liked to challenge himself, adding that this “will satisfy the public, show that I am sincere and I will do my best.”
Last month, nearly two months after the promise, Petilla met with the President behind closed doors in Malacañang and offered to resign for failing to meet his self-imposed Christmas Eve deadline to reenergize all 320 towns flattened by the super typhoon on Nov. 8.
As of Dec. 24, three of the 320 towns still had to be reenergized.
As expected by many, the President rejected Petilla’s resignation.
But the brouhaha over what critics labeled as Petilla’s “self-inflicted wound” is far from over.
On several occasions, the President scored the media for supposedly engaging in nitpicking by putting to task his energy secretary for the latter’s unfulfilled promise.
Aquino noted that Petilla had managed to restore power to the communities in the Visayas in roughly 40 days, and within that period he was able to energize 317 of the 320 affected towns, leaving only 0.93 percent still to be reenergized.
“Secretary Petilla is a straight and honorable man, so he decided to submit his resignation. My response to him: ‘That’s foolishness,’” Aquino said.
“Many would benefit from his accomplishment, and his competence would be wasted if he would resign,” he added.
That statement, however, has been seen in a new light this week amid the President’s discovery that he had been left in the dark by his own energy secretary over the real power situation in parts of Mindanao.
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