The House of Representatives granted President Benigno Aquino III special powers through a passed resolution yesterday to deal with a projected power shortage in 2015, even as the Senate put the measure on hold to make way for budget deliberations.
Senator Sergio Osmena III, chairman of the committee on energy, said Senate President Franklin Drilon had ordered that priority be given to passing the national budget for 2015.
“The committee will have to finish its work first. Right now, all senators are busy to pass the most important law every year, which is the national budget. There are instructions already from the Senate President’s office that there will be no hearings until the national budget is passed,” he said.
He said it was doubtful that the Senate would still be able to tackle the proposal to grant special powers to the President before the year ends.
Osmeña also admitted that he was not keen to hasten the process to approve the joint resolution, saying the issue was complicated.
He said there was a need to scrutinize the powers carefully before granting them to the President.
“I think they will mostly have to do with appropriations and the use of the Malampaya fund. So it might not be an amendment or exemption to the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) but an exemption to the [law coverin the] Malampaya fund,” he said.
In the House, the committee on energy chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, passed House Joint Resolution 21 with 18 lawmakers voting for its approval.
Only Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares voted against the resolution.
Umali assured the public that the emergency powers would not result in higher electricity rates for consumers.
But his assurance of a no pass-on provision was not spelled out in the final resolution.
“The intent is there will be no pass-on to consumers, the intention is not to burden the public with additional cost [of electricity] through the joint resolution,” Umali said during the hearing Tuesday.
“President Aquino is not opposed to the idea of tapping the Malampaya fund as subsidy,” Umali said.
House leaders are expected to have the resolution passed in plenary by the end of November.
The resolution specified that the “additional generating capacity shall be sourced from the [ILP or Interruptible Load Program]” in addition to the power plants that are already being constructed and also expected to come on line next year. (C/O Macon Araneta, Maricel Cruz MLA STANDARD)