Aquino special powers should not last longer than 6 months—Santiago

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 10 years ago

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER.net PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said Wednesday the additional powers for President Benigno Aquino III to contract capacity to address the looming power supply crisis should last for only six months, since one year would be too long, and half this time would be enough to address the abnormal situation.

Santiago said she was in favor of giving additional powers to Mr. Aquino because building new power plants would take years, and the power shortage is expected by summer next year.

She also said that since these powers would be used to deal with an emergency situation, there was no need to prolong their effectivity.

“It is an abnormal situation. We don’t want to stay in that situation for a long period of time because then we will get habituated. The President might acquire the attributes of a dictatorship, so we give him the power but only for six months or so,” she added.

She also acknowledged that this would lead to higher power rates.

Santiago said that with regard to these additional powers, Mr. Aquino must be given the presumption of good faith. She did not think he would enter into power supply contracts that would unduly favor the suppliers.

“If the concern in the minds of some is the egregious [former President Fidel] Ramos example of take or pay when we had to pay for electricity that we did not take, that is to say we paid anyway, and they made a killing, that is no longer a concern today because I believe President Aquino is not as minded as his unfortunate past predecessor,” she said.

According to her, it must be up to Congress as well to define the terms and conditions of these powers to be given to the President through a joint resolution.

She also said the absence of a draft resolution attached to the President’s letter asking for these powers could also have been meant to avoid the appearance of Congress being a rubber stamp of Malacañang.

Santiago said the Energy Committees of both the House of Representatives and the Senate should have foreseen the possibility of a power supply crisis since they had been discussing the issue.

Higher rates are the price the public will pay for the lawmakers’ lack of foresight, she added.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, for his part, said the Senate will thoroughly investigate the power supply issue to ensure the people will get the best deal at the least cost under the circumstances. The government should not be allowed to sign just what it wants, said Osmeña.

He said he would look for other sources of power. He had talked with the head of the Makati Business Club, which he said had vowed to help address the issue by providing additional power, to the tune of some 400 megawatts.

“With that, I think we won’t have to spend too much money. We will just have to subsidize them because it’s expensive to run gen sets (generator sets),” he said.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla earlier said the government was looking to rent an existing plant or purchase modular generator sets. Petilla said the estimated cost for generating this additional capacity was P6 billion, which would be for rent.

As for Santiago’s criticism of the energy committees, Osmeña said she should not be making such pronouncements especially since she has been hardly reporting for work. Santiago has been on leave because of her health problems.

Osmeña also pointed out that since 2011, he has been the only lawmaker warning of the power supply crisis.

Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa said it would be up to the Senate and the House to determine how long the President’s emergency powers would last.

But he also said Malacañang would submit a draft of the joint resolution for Congress to consider.