Trillanes bill will allow Aquino to tap Malampaya Fund for rehab, subsidies

Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is seeking to amend a decades-old Marcos law to allow the Malampaya Fund to be used to rehabilitate public energy infrastructure crippled by calamities.

Trillanes said it was about time Congress amended Presidential Decree No. 910 to expressly authorize the use of the fund in the rehabilitation of public energy infrastructure, in view of a recent adverse Supreme Court ruling.

The high tribunal had ruled as unconstitutional a provision in PD 910, issued in 1976, which allowed the President to use the special fund for non-energy related projects.

Given the court’s ruling, Trillanes noted that President Aquino was in a quandary about whether or not to tap the Malampaya Fund to subsidize private consumers facing a new power rate adjustment.

“It is thus incumbent upon Congress to promote the public interest by once and for all amending the three-decade-old law,” said Trillanes, as he filed Senate Bill No. 2049.

The subject of amendment is Section 8 of PD 910, which provided for the use of the special fund to finance energy resource development and exploitation programs, and “for such other purposes as may be directed by the President.”

In his measure, Trillanes specified that the fund shall also be used to finance the maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of public energy infrastructure either in preparation for, or in response to, calamities.

The fund, he said, should also be used to finance a direct subsidy for the energy consumption of Filipinos “in case of market failure.”

The senator noted that while the high tribunal clipped the President’s discretionary power over the fund, it affirmed the constitutionality of tapping the fund for energy development projects.

“While I believe that the President has the power to allocate the Malapampaya Fund for the said purpose, I am filing this bill to finally settle the issue once and for all and to promote the public interest by amending PD 910,” Trillanes said.

The Malampaya Fund is government revenue collected from the sale of natural gas extracted from the Malampaya gas fields off the west coast of Palawan province.

Early in December, the Energy Regulatory Commission approved a power rate adjustment in the franchise area of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), setting off a furor among consumers already grappling with increases in cooking gas and petroleum prices.

Mr. Aquino said he was barred by the Supreme Court ruling from using the Malampaya Fund to subsidize the consumers, for instance, by reestablishing power distribution lines toppled by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Trillanes has challenged Mr. Aquino to test the high court ruling.

Bureau of Treasury officials told the Senate in October that the government had collected P183.57 billion in Malampaya revenue from 2002 to October this year. The balance of P136 billion was commingled in the general fund.

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