Duterte using ‘moral suasion’ vs ERC execs

Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte AP Photo/Martin Mejia

President Duterte merely used his “moral suasion” in ordering executives of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to quit following the suicide of ERC director Francisco Jose Villa Jr., a Malacañang official said on Tuesday.

Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag said the Palace recognized that some of the ERC officials had fixed seven-year terms in the regulatory body.

“That is the very reason why the President is exercising his moral suasion for these officials to voluntarily resign,” Banaag told reporters. “The President has standards on how to run a government agency and he has been clear about fighting corruption.”

Mr. Duterte ordered ERC officials to resign after Villa took his own life early this month. His sister, broadcast journalist Charie Villa, subsequently disclosed that her brother had complained of pressure from ERC head Jose Vicente Salazar to approve graft-tainted procurement contracts.

The President warned Salazar and his fellow ERC officials to “better pray” as he had knowledge about corruption in the quasi-judicial body based on “a document.”

“Now it’s a matter of government lawyers assessing the case,” the President had said.

Legal remedies

Banaag said it was up to the President if he would grant Salazar’s request to brief the Chief Executive regarding Villa’s allegations of corruption against him.

“If he (Mr. Duterte) would not want [a dialogue], we will go through legal remedies on how to go about the ERC issue,” she said.

Villa wrote in one of his suicide notes: “My greatest fear in the bids and awards committee is the AVP by Luis Morelos which the chair and CEO, Jose Vicente B. Salazar, chose through a rigged selection system. That will be a criminal act.”

ERC commissioners Alfredo J. Non, Gloria Victoria C. Yap-Taruc, Josefina M. Asirit and Geronimo D. Sta. Ana refused to follow Mr. Duterte’s order, arguing it “would not be in the best interest of the ERC” for them to leave their position.

House move

Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, who chairs the House energy committee, said that the abolition of ERC was one of the possibilities being studied in the wake of the controversy.

“The President has already called for the resignation of the ERC commissioners, and has pronounced that he will be asking Congress to dissolve the ERC and call for its reorganization,” Velasco said, as he announced an investigation in aid of legislation to determine “the systems and procedures” within the commission.

Velasco said the country’s power industry regulator could possibly be abolished by amending the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 which created the quasi-judicial body to promote competition, monitor the electricity spot market, set capability standards, and penalize abuses.

He said the possible amendment might lead to “creating another agency to assume the ERC’s functions or [passing] on its responsibilities to the Department of Energy.”

Velasco stressed that “we have to ensure that the abolition of the ERC will not create a vacuum in the power industry.”