Emergency power won’t be abused, vows solon

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Congress is set to keep an eye on the implementation of the joint resolution granting President Benigno Aquino III emergency powers to address the looming power crisis in 2015 as safeguard against possible abuses.

In a press conference, Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali said the technical working group (TWG) formed by the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC), which he co-chairs, will not be dissolved so it could still monitor possible abuses in the implementation of the resolution.

The lower chamber, in a vote of 149-18, approved the resolution on third and final reading on Wednesday.

He said the resolution was amended to show that the President may authorize to source from the Malampaya fund the reimbursement for the owners of self-generating facilities or back-up generators over their fuel expenses and reasonable recovery of use.

The Malampaya fund, or royalties from a gas field off Palawan, figured in a corruption scandal over allegations that some P900 million from the fund went to ghost projects for kickbacks through the bogus foundations linked to Janet Lim-Napoles. Napoles faces a plunder complaint in connection to this, as well as a plunder charge before the Sandiganbayan on a separate pork barrel scam case.
“We did not dissolve the TWG of the JCPC so that it will continue to function to foresee its implementation, so we will avoid excesses or abuses,” Umali said.

According to the amended resolution, “The President is hereby authorized to source from the Malampaya funds the amount necessary to implement the provision.”

Umali said this portion of the resolution is meant to downplay criticisms that Congress may lose its mandate to dictate on the executive how to use the Malampaya fund, which is now required by the Supreme Court to be used only for energy-related projects.

“We put in the amendment that the Malampaya as the source to clarify issues that the Supreme Court decision says Congress should not surrender its mandate to dictate on the executive how to use the Malampaya. This is to clarify that the authority to use the Malampaya fund for this purpose emanates from Congress through this joint resolution,” Umali said.

Pressed on possible abuses on the joint resolution, Umali could not give any, saying the resolution was drafted precisely to prevent excesses besides its purpose to avert the power crisis.

“I am not thinking about that. I am positive about this,” Umali said.

“We will be on top of the situation. We will rely on reports, more than those from Malacañang, also from power stakeholders including the private sector so that we will know if there are problems. And we will do it proactively, not reactively,” he added.

House Joint Resolution No. 21 seeks “to provide for the establishment of additional power generating capacity as mandated by Republic Act No. 9136, also known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), to effectively address the projected shortage of the supply of electricity in the Luzon grid from March 12 to July 2015.”

In a letter to Congress, President Aquino said granting him the authority to contract additional power capacity will help him address the factors of the power shortage, such as the anticipated El Nino phenomenon, the Malampaya plant shutdown, prevalent outages of power plants, among others.

The resolution was amended on the plenary to show that only 782 megawatts, from the earlier forecast of 1,004 MW, is the maximum projected shortfall during the period.

Of this, 135 MW, from earlier forecast of 600MW, is needed to meet the required regulating reserve, while 647 MW, from 404 MW, is needed for required contingency reserve.

Also, the resolution said there is a projected two weeks of red alert, when brownouts will occur, and at least 15 weeks of yellow alert, or thinning power reserves. This was amended from an earlier forecast of four weeks of yellow alert only.

According to the resolution, “additional generating capacity shall be sourced from the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), fast tracking of committed projects, and plants for interconnection and rehabilitation.”

The ILP is seen as the solution to the anticipated power shortage. Under the ILP, big industrial and commercial customers who have the ability to produce their own electricity through generating sets should cut off or reduce their supplied electricity, particularly during peak periods of the day, and instead use their own generator sets.