By Christine F. Herrera | Sep. 19, 2014 at 12:01am
SPEAKER Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Thursday that the House would grant President Benigno Aquino III emergency powers for a year to avert an expected shortage of electricity in 2015, after the Palace submitted a working draft of a bill calling for such powers.
Belmonte assured the public that the powers would not be misused and that the joint resolution would have an appendix containing the precise actions the Palace can take.
“I think... it’s a maximum of one year. Even now what’s being targeted is a period from March up until everything is expected to be back on stream,” Belmonte said.
Earlier, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago insisted that the powers last for six months at most.
But Belmonte said the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or Epira allows the President to negotiate directly with power contractors in the case of a crisis.
“The law itself has a limit of one year. Some people say shorter. We are open to having it shorter but we are inclined to give the maximum limit provided for by law, which is one year,” Belmonte said.
Belmonte said the working draft that the Palace submitted to the House had already been forwarded to appropriate committees that would file the joint resolution.
He added that they would safeguard against a spike in electricity rates as a result of the negotiated contracts.
On Thursday, the House contingent of the joint congressional power commission, co-chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, conducted its third Technical Working Group meeting that was attended by power industry players.
Present during the TWG meeting were House Deputy Speaker Henedina Abad, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla and officials from the Energy Regulatory Commission, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, and Manila Electric Co.
During the meeting, Umali presented the list of potential power capacities to address the looming energy crisis in the summer of 2015.
In the Senate, the chairman of the committee on energy, Senator Sergio Osmeña III, said they would likely grant the President’s request for emergency powers. source
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