Senator Sergio Osmeña III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang is not closing the door on Senator Sergio Osmeña III despite his comment that there is no pressure to grant President Benigno Aquino III emergency powers to address the impending power shortage next year.
“You know Senator Serge Osmeña is very blunt about his opinion, but all these will be taken into consideration,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said during a Palace briefing.
Osmeña is the chair of the Senate energy committee. On Thursday, he claimed that Aquino was being “misled” about the power situation and that there is no need for emergency powers. He said the Senate can pass the resolution in February.
On the other hand, the House of Representatives on Friday approved on third and final reading House Joint Resolution No. 21, which 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.”
But Lacierda said they are already working on a “workable” solution to the potential power crisis in the summer of 2015.
“Senator Serge Osmeña, while he may differ with Secretary (Jericho) Petilla, has also the best interest—has the interest of the Filipino in mind,” he explained, adding that the senator is also looking at other ways to mitigate and address the problem.
He said he was still hopeful that the House of Representatives and the Senate will agree.
“We have already certified this bill as urgent, so all we know (is) that Senator Serge Osmeña is also concerned, and we’ll leave it with the House and Senate to come up with an answer to address the power situation,” the spokesperson said.
“As to the timetable, hopefully it will be early enough to address whatever concerns that we have in 2015… We will leave it with the Senate,” he said.
Asked about concerns that the additional authority will only benefit power producers, as well as encourage corruption, Lacierda said that safeguards will be in place.
“If there is no power, it affects the economy; it affects the convenience of the consumers,” he said. “I am certain that safeguards will be provided to make sure that we are able to address the power situation in 2015.”
“So all these are all speculations on the part of those people, but certainly, government is mindful of how to address the situation and how to best safeguard and ensure that it will redound to the benefit of the Filipino people,” he added.
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