Recto: Emergency powers may ‘electrocute’ Aquino

Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto: Emergency powers are fraught with political risks. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Monday cautioned President Aquino against asking for emergency powers to avert a power crisis because these could “electrocute” him.

What the executive branch should rush are proposals to clear roadblocks to the construction of more power plants, the administration senator said.

“It is up to the President to demand them (emergency powers) but my view is that it should be the legislation of last resort,” he said in a statement.

Recto reminded the administration that emergency powers were “fraught with political risks” and could “electrocute” the President himself.

“Once he has it, the onus of solving the energy crisis falls on him. If electricity rates go up, for example, the people will expect him to tame the increase on the mistaken belief that he has the power to moderate them,” he said.

“In other words, emergency powers are politically high voltage that they can electrocute him. People will see it as the magic wand that can make high power rates go away or power plants go up in an instant,” he said.

Some senators and representatives thumbed down Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone’s recent proposal to grant the President emergency powers to fast-track the construction of more power plants.

More power plants could meet the growing demand for electricity and bring down costs, Evardone had argued.

If at all, the powers would authorize the President to shorten the bidding process and simplify the “Swiss challenge mode of inviting investors from the power and transport sectors,” he said.

Despite the unpopularity of his proposal, Evardone on Monday said he intended to file his measure to fast-track the construction of power plants, as well as of mass transit systems.

Evardone said he was still drafting the measure and may file it when Congress resumes its session next week.

He would try to convince his colleagues to back his move, he said.

In a press briefing, Evardone said the demand for energy was rising but new generation capacity had been slow to increase.

At mercy of producers

“Unless we expedite the processes, we might be confronted with a situation where we will be at the mercy of the power producers,” he said. “Let us not wait for the situation that happened during the Ramos administration wherein we had to swallow all the terms and dictates of the power producers.”

He said the government must see to it that there would be no take-or-pay provisions in contracts with generation companies. These provisions require distributors to pay for a specified amount of power regardless of whether they used all of it or not.

In 1993, Congress granted then President Fidel V. Ramos emergency powers to address widespread blackouts. Ramos subsequently granted licenses to independent power producers to build power plants in two years and approved supply contracts that guaranteed that the government would buy the output of these producers.

This, however, led to higher electricity costs when the East Asian financial crisis struck in 1997 and led to lower power demand and a weaker peso.

Evardone said that current steps being taken to address the power supply issue were inadequate.

“While I admire the initiatives of [Energy Secretary Jericho] Petilla, we should be more prospective,” he said.

He said the government might once again have to resort to using power barges, which are expensive and difficult to maintain.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara also weighed in on the proposal to grant emergency powers to the President.

“Does the government need emergency powers to fast-track new power plants? Probably not, but the issue is worth looking into,” he said in a statement.

More but expensive

He said the public should not forget the consequences of the grant of such powers to former President Ramos to deal with the widespread blackouts.

“We ended up with much-criticized take-or-pay provisions where the government and the people ended up paying for unused power. At the time, we were thankful to have more, albeit expensive, power as an alternative to no power and blackouts. But I think we should be smarter now,” he said.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) had said that further constraints on its capacity to collect the P4.15-per-kilowatt-hour power adjustment could disrupt the entire power industry.

Meralco said it had been receiving demand letters to pay at least the P9.6 billion it had incurred from buying power in the spot market following the shutdown of the Malampaya gas pipeline and some power producers between November and December last year.

Recto urged energy officials to begin crafting proposed amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) and Presidential Decree No. 910 on the use of the Malampaya gas proceeds and other laws that would rid the “choke points” in the building of power plants.

A key measure that Malacañang should craft is one that would seek to lift constraints in building new plants “in light of the universal consensus that massive blackouts loom beginning next year,” he said.

Quoting the Department of Energy, Recto said the Luzon grid would require 1,000 megawatts to meet the growing demand.

From 2001 to 2013, Luzon peak demand of electricity surged from 5,646 MW to 8,300 MW, he noted.

Recto said Petilla had proposed an amendment to the Epira, seeking to lift the prohibition against the government in operating a plant.