President Duterte appears to have named Cabinet officials who would rather do their job away from the limelight and out of reach of controversies.
Among them is new Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi. The guy has been landing in the news recently and only after he has made some good moves that can help the President make good a promise he made
last elections.
It looks like Cusi has acted quickly on reports that the country is facing thinning power supply. It will be recalled that the power sector went on heightened alert several weeks after rotating brownouts hit Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
There are three good moves on the part of Cusi.
First, he immediately went to inspect the country’s major power plants. Second, he tapped the help of the private sector. Third, he got the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to work closely with him.
Cusi’s inspections of the power plants were recently announced by his department spokesman. “Technical audit” is how it was described. We presume this means Cusi intends to find out if the power shortage is real and not merely the product of “technical maladjustments.”
This should send clear signals to the power industry that he does not intend to take alleged power-shortage situations sitting down, and that he intends to be a hands-on energy secretary.
This should also send signals to everyone that Cusi does not intend to champion big business interests that currently influence the directions of the industry he now oversees. This is a good move, especially since earlier there was talk that Cusi has strong links to a big business conglomerate that has been a power-sector player for quite some time.
Cusi had apparently once been a senior executive in one of the units of this big business group. Other industry players are reportedly wary of this group because of the tendency of its bosses to throw their weight around.
It is good for Cusi to have gone out of his way to serve notice that he is not a pawn of any business group. It was apparent in the past that reforms in this sector had been rather slow because the top energy man may not have stood firmly against pressure from powerful interests.
One agency that has been taking a strong stand is the ERC. Again, it was a master stroke on the part of Cusi to get the ERC as its strongest ally. ERC has the regulatory powers and is tasked with making sure that reforms in the power sector as mandated by existing laws are put in place fast.
Cusi was quoted by media as saying that he “will work with the Energy Regulatory Commission that all standards are enforced to ascertain reliable, stable and reasonably priced electricity.”
He is right. In a way, the ERC is the “enforcement arm” of the Department of Energy. The department is concerned more with programs and policies. This explains the wisdom of Cusi’s move. He has the “enforcer” to stand by him if ever he should take a bold stand against the well-entrenched interests in the sector he oversees.
Also working in Cusi’s favor is the fact that the ERC head, likewise, has no ties with business interests in the power sector. The current ERC chairman, former Justice Undersecretary Jose Vicente B. Salazar, has been a career government official and had not worked with any of the organizations now running businesses in the electricity industry. The media had earlier reported that Salazar is both a lawyer and a graduate of electrical engineering. The ERC head’s technical and legal competence should boost whatever strong position Cusi might adopt, as reforms are put in place in the power sector.
Cusi’s move appears to be in stark contrast to that of those who had previously occupied his post. Some of them apparently wanted to do a one-man show and bent on creating the impression that the industry could be reformed and policed by one single person.
Cusi, apparently, has no appetite for one-man shows, preferring to share the task with other agencies and private-sector stakeholders.
An example of this was Cusi’s move to tap the help of the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers of the Philippines (IIEE) in the ongoing technical inspection of the power plants.
Private-sector organizations, like the IIEE, have both the competence and the objectivity. By tapping them, Cusi has given us all the assurance that the result of the audit would be believable. It looks like the new energy secretary has been making the right moves. We hope these moves lead to lower power rates as promised by the President.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.