Belmonte: Aquino to have emergency powers before 2014 ends

Mick Basa

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Belmonte: Aquino to have emergency powers before 2014 ends
It would be safer if Congress puts to law the President’s emergency power 'and have a certain margin that we can actually control,' says the House Speaker

MANILA, Philippines – Granting President Benigno S. Aquino III the emergency powers to address the looming power crisis in summer of 2015 is possible before the year ends.

“The emergency powers can be done this year. It’s a very simple joint resolution,” House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr told reporters from the sidelines of Quezon City’s Gawad Parangal Monday morning, October 13.

Congress has two remaining sessions, with less than 30 working days to deliberate pending bills.

The House needs the Senate’s approval of the joint resolution, and Belmonte hopes the upper chamber would pass it, despite misgivings by some senators, because “we have a bigger majority there as well.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking emergency powers for Aquino under section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to allow the government to address the shortage.

An emergency power will give the President more flexibility to acquire additional energy capacity without going through heavy deliberation in the Congress. But emergency power would be be the last resort, said Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla.

Based on the draft resolution, President Aquino’s emergency powers will be valid until July 31, 2015, unless withdrawn by a subsequent joint resolution.

Belmonte stressed that it would be safer if Congress puts to law the President’s emergency power under the EPIRA law rather than letting many industries suffer in a power crisis next year.

“We have thought about this carefully mainly because, if you start counting these capacities, people say we have enough capacity. It’s not easy to harness locally because we always fall short of our ambitions,” Belmonte said.

“I personally believe that it’s better to play safe and have a certain margin that we can actually control,” he added.

Lawmakers from the oppositionhave questioned the move, saying the Aquino administration should have crafted a clear energy development plan. 

Luzon will experience power crisis in the summer of 2015 if there are no crucial steps to avert them, Petilla has warned.

One of the crucial steps, Petilla identified, is to muster committed generating capacity from the private sector.

Engaging establishments in Metro Manila to join the voluntary Interruptible Load Program (ILP), where the establishments commit to disconnect from the grid and generate their own power, is another viable solution to help avert the power crisis.

Petilla said though the ILP is not entirely reliable as establishments can only voluntarily shutdown their grid usage for a certain amount of time per day.

Earlier, Senator Sergio Osmeña III is bent on getting private sector cooperation to fill in the projected power shortage in the summer of 2015. The senator said there would even be a surplus of capacity if businesses will cooperate under the ILP.

“You can blame me if we have a brownout [in 2015],” Osmeña had said. – Rappler.com

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