Resign already.
That’s what House leaders have to say to the four commissioners of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) who managed to earn their second suspension order from the Office of the Ombudsman in six months’ time.
“Maybe it’s time they resign,” Surigao del Sur 2nd district Rep. Johnny Pimentel said Monday referring to the quartet of Commissioners Gloria Victoria Yap-Taruc, Alfredo Non, Josefina Patricia Magpala-Asirit and Geronimo Sta. Ana following their latest punishment.
It’s the same group that, last December, was slapped with a year-long suspension without pay for allowing power utilities like the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to skirt the required bidding process for energy agreements filed before the ERC.
This time, the Ombudsman handed down a three-month suspension on the four, again sans pay, for Simple Neglect of Duty. The offense had to do with tolerating the misuse of Bill Deposits (BD) by allowing its commingling with the capital or operation cost of Meralco.
This apparently defeated the purpose of BDs, which is to guarantee the payment of bills.
“We have also completed our committee report and we have recommended [the] further investigation of ERC commissioners and if there is substantial evidence to file the necessary cases,” Pimentel said.
The Mindanao solon chairs the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, which finished last month a joint probe into the seven alleged “sweetheart” power supply agreements (PSAs) being sought by Meralco-linked generation companies (gencos) before the Commission.
Useless
“Di ba the best na dapat mangyari na lang is to just resign (Isn’t the best scenario either for them to just resign) or for the President [Rodrigo Duterte] to fire them?” said Ifugao lone district Rep. Teddy Baguilat Jr.
As it stands, Baguilat said the ERC commissioners won’t be able to do their job anyway since they will be placed in the “freezer” for so long.
“Parang inutil na ang ERC kasi di na nila magawa mandate nila (The ERC will be somewhat useless because the commissioners won’t be able to perform their mandate). Because they’re all suspended,” Baguilat said.
Meanwhile, CIBAC Party-List Rep. Sherwin Tugna expressed his support behind the Ombudsman’s latest action against the erring officials.
“That is a welcome decision in the fight against mis-governance. We in Citizens’ Battle against Corruption (CIBAC) Party-List supports the decision,” said Tugna, chairman of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.
The Ombudsman’s decision dated May 18, 2018 stemmed from a complaint filed by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (NASECORE) for Syndicated Estafa and Grave Misconduct against the ERC commissioners and Meralco executives.
The complaint questioned the unauthorized use and utilization of consumers’ BDs by the Distribution Utility, the discriminatory fixing of interests by the ERC and the non-crediting by Meralco of the interests earned by the BDs in favor of the consumers.
It can be recalled that the House inquiry conducted by the Good Government panel along with the Committee on Energy tackled Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate’s House Resolution (HR) No.566.
Zarate claimed in his resolution that ERC bent its own rules just to accommodate the PSAs, which were filed after the application deadline of 5 p.m. of April 29, 2016 had lapsed. Thus the tag, “sweetheart deals.”
The Davao-based solon had said that these power deals were onerous and that they would only result to hefty rate hikes.
“It would be prudent for the ERC to junk these deals and start a new and true competitive selection process. These deals would cost electric consumers P12.44 billion annually for 20 to 21 years and with the newly-signed tax reform package, this would definitely increase further,” he warned.