by Myrna Velasco
October 8, 2015
Will “kuryente mo, sagot ko” be the catchphrase that will catapult former Energy secretary Carlos Jericho “Icot” L. Petilla into the Senate?
In a roundtable forum with Manila Bulletin editors, the former energy chief and senatorial aspirant Petilla admitted that “energy will take the core” of his political campaign, noting that he will use his last circular at the Department of Energy (DOE) as his vehicle to communicate the goal of lower electricity rates that he has been wishing for the Filipino consumers.
M.B. HOT SEAT – Former Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla (seated) poses with Manila Bulletin editors as guest of the MB Hot Seat, a roundtable discussion on his legislative agenda at the MB Integrated Newsroom yesterday. Petilla, who is eyeing a slot in the ruling Liberal Party’s Senate slate, said he would focus on energy, healthcare and education. (Bob Dungo Jr.)
He is referring to the mandate on competitive selection process (CSP) on securing power supply agreements for distribution utilities (DUs) – which he claims as the policy that shall institute transparency in the procurement of electricity supply for cost-sensitive consumers, primarily the households.
BATTLING POWER GIANTS
But in pursuing CSP to lower electricity rates, Petilla will have to contend with the powers that be in the power industry, who will be adversely affected by his advocacy.
In fact, he revealed that those who dislike his advocacy of lowering electricity rates have already started campaigning against him. But he is unperturbed, aware that power consumers and electric cooperatives are behind him.
Apart from energy, Petilla also revealed his two other advocacies – health and education, making his campaign a three-tiered policy priority.
Of the three policy platforms, he will be leaning on his easy favorite energy issue “because that’s where I came from” – and expectedly, it will also be thematic of his political mantra.
Even after he bowed out as Energy secretary, Petilla admitted that his heart still belongs to the sector, especially so since the country’s electric cooperatives have been solidly supporting his Senate bid.
TRANSPARENCY = LOWER COSTS
“For energy, my take is very simple – the goal is to make it sustainable and available and how to make it cheaper,” he said.
As he would be knocking on the doors of the Filipino voters in the coming months, he stressed that his message would be as ergonomic as: “Your electricity rates will go down…and I can guarantee you that.”
The CSP, he said, is his policy prescription that will give that long-desired aspiration of affordable power rates for the Filipino consumers.
He cited the initial outcomes of biddings undertaken for electric cooperatives (EC), in which lower rates turned out to be the norm due to competitive procurements enforced on their supply purchases.
For power utilities with leaner capacity requirements (such as the ECs), he noted that these entities could gain better bargaining chip on procuring their power supply at cheaper rates.
The cost benchmark at this point, he said, is at P3.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) based on the last aggregated supply bidding for ECs; “and there would still be a tendency for it to go down further.”
His goal in the Senate is to cement CSP into a legislated act so this policy could transcend appointment changes at the energy department.
“It (CSP) shall be legislated and it shall complement EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act). I would say that EPIRA is a good law, but it has not worked fully so far for the welfare of the people,” he stressed.
DIGITIZING CLASSROOMS
Petilla’s other passion is pushing for multimedia-based platform of education at all levels. Under this, the teaching aid and materials shall have to undergo “digitization phase” that shall be undertaken uniformly for all schools nationwide.
“There is no need to change the curriculum. You just need to equip the pupils and students with tablets. And for the teachers, they will have to undergo higher level of mentoring to fully prepare them into this set-up,” he said.
Based on his assessment, about 80 percent of the curriculum across class levels will likely be digitized; and the rest such as those on religion, values or physical education would still tread on the traditional set-up.
Even for cash-strained families, he noted that financial resources must not be a concern, “because the government has to spend for it (tablet)… and the tablets must stay in the classrooms.”
With “digitized educational set-up,” the State’s social costs being funneled to education may also be slashed, because this could dodge budget rise for frequent need to build additional classrooms.
He said that with a multimedia-anchored education, the number of learning hours for students could be reduced, and this could also promote uniform quality of education for Filipino children.
REINFORCING LOCAL HEALTH WORKERS
Public health is one sphere where the Philippines has failed.
To address this, Petilla will simultaneously make a pitch for reinforced deployment of health workers (primarily doctors) at municipal and rural health units.
Complementing health budget is one of his targets if he is given the chance in the lawmaking arena – and this shall involve the deployment of additional doctors in the country’s roughly 1,200 municipal health units.
“The DOH (Department of Health), if it has to add one doctor in each of the 1,200 municipalities, can address problems in the country’s failing health system… a law is needed for that primarily for budget allocation because that entails additional budget of P2 billion a year,” he said.
This proposition, according to him, will similarly fix dilemmas on the “near-retirement plague” of many health workers that often affect or stall the implementation of the country’s public health programs. source
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