By:
Marlon Ramos
The chair of the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC), Jose Vicente Salazar, may have to face his battles
alone after the four commissioners of the agency tasked with regulating the
power industry on Thursday brought a complaint against him to the Civil Service
Commission (CSC).
In a joint affidavit,
ERC Commissioners Alfredo Non, Gloria Victoria Taruc, Geronimo Sta. Ana and
Josefina Patricia Asirit accused Salazar of
violating laws and
policies by arbitrarily designating individuals to career positions in the ERC,
among them his first cousin.
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“As can be gleaned from
the foregoing, the charges against … Salazar clearly involve dishonesty,
oppression and grave misconduct,” the commissioners said in a 17-page
complaint.
Suspension
The commissioners asked
the CSC to hold Salazar administratively liable and to suspend him pending the
investigation of their complaint.
“After all that has
been said and done, the commission merely wants to promote good governance and
checks and balances within the ERC,” they said.
“And we sincerely
believe that this could be achieved if the policies of the agency, including the
management thereof, could be shared by all members of the commission,” the
commissioners added.
Salazar, a former
justice undersecretary, has been blamed for the death of ERC director Francisco
Villa Jr., who killed himself in November last year supposedly because the ERC
chair had been pressuring him to approve graft-laden supply contracts.
Without concurrence
President Duterte
threatened to abolish the ERC after Salazar’s refusal to quit his post
following Villa’s death and despite several allegations of corruption.
In their complaint, the
commissioners said the ERC chair made “irregular appointments” and promotions
of personnel in the agency without the concurrence of the five-member
commission.
Key posts
They said Republic Act
No. 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, which created the ERC,
clearly stated that the authority to designate the agency’s executive director
and other officials was vested in the entire commission and not in the ERC
chair alone.
Worse, the
commissioners claimed Salazar named personnel to key posts in the ERC despite
their failure to meet the minimum requirements set by the civil service law.
Among those designated
by Salazar was his cousin, Esteban Lorenzo Jose Riva, who was concurrently
appointed as head executive assistant and officer in charge of the agency’s
finance service.
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