Manila Standard Today
Sunday, 01 April, 2012 Written by Maricel Cruz
THREE lawmakers on Sunday warned the politicians using the power crisis to obtain emergency powers for President Benigno Aquino III that they were “riding a tiger.”
“Anyone who rides on the Mindanao power crisis for selfish political interests is riding on a tiger,” Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong said.
“There are some grandstanding politicians with a moist eye for re-election in the May 2013 elections who are out to curry favor with the President, who heads the Liberal Party, the dominant political party today.”
Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones said the clamor for emergency powers for President Aquino was all political sound and fury in aid of re-election and media mileage.
He dismissed a proposal by administration ally Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, saying it had fallen on deaf ears because President Aquino himself had said he didn’t need such powers to solve the power shortage in Mindanao.
Several lawmakers oppose the grant of emergency powers to President Aquino, saying that would reward the administration for not acting on the problem over the last two years.
Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, a member of the Mindanao affairs committee, urged the politicians riding on the power crisis issue to revise the Energy Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, which she said contained “onerous, questionable, exploitative and anti-consumer provisions.”
Instead of pushing for the grant of emergency powers, those politicians should work for the repeal of the energy law favoring only the large corporate interests in the energy industry, Ilagan said.
“The current power situation in Mindanao should be enough evidence that Epira’s 10 years of implementation failed to improve the power industry and failed to make power more affordable to consumers,” she said.
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/April/2)
No comments:
Post a Comment