P-Noy impatient

President Aquino warned members of Congress that they will be blamed for the blackouts (20-day rotational) that will happen if they don’t pass the proposed joint resolution, authorizing the national government to contract an additional generating capacity to address the 300-megawatt projected deficit and to have sufficient regulating reserves equivalent to 4% of peak demand, for another 300 megawatts.

To begin with, President Aquino caused the delay because Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla suggested as early as July that President Aquino should ask Congress to declare a power “emergency” and invoke his powers under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001.

Earlier in January, Aquino said he does not need emergency powers to address the looming increase in power rates and the lack of mass systems in the capital and neighboring provinces.

From what he said, it was a clear proof that Aquino has enough powers at his disposal to address the problems faced by our country.

Not until a few weeks ago, Aquino asked Congress for the emergency powers. Aquino hesitated to use the word “emergency” after critics slammed the administration as using the energy crisis as reason to increase his powers.

Energy Secretary Petilla explained that government intervention will be focused solely on addressing the projected shortage. He said that government has no plans of intervening to distort the market or complicate the situation even further.

Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna party-list said that it is highly suspicious that the proposal to give President Aquino emergency powers was floated at time when Meralco and the power generators are threatening consumers with blackouts.

Militant group Bayan Muna claimed the government has no one else to blame but itself.

NBI extortion

Department of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima ordered an investigation of the alleged extortion perpetrated by a Miss Arlene and several National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents on four Saudi Arabian nationals, in a complaint filed by the Saudi Embassy, with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Tourism (DOT).

De Lima said she considered the Saudi Embassy’s complaint as “serious allegations which not only cast the NBI in a bad light, but likewise compromise the integrity of the legitimate operations against human traffickers, as well as our nation’s diplomatic relations with countries whose nationals may have been victimized by such alleged criminal syndicates.”

The embassy identified the victims of extortion at the NBI as Majdi Abdulhamed Yaghmoor, Hassand Alharbi, Ahmad Al Ghaneem and Farhan Alsolobi. Before they were released, the four Saudis paid P570,000 to the NBI agents for their release.

The Saudi Embassy said there were other Saudi nationals who were also victimized by the same scheme.

De Lima created a special fact-finding committee to identify the members of the alleged NBI extortion ring, led by Justice Assistant Secretary Zabedin Azis.

Prevent Ebola

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said all concerned agencies, led by the Department of Health (DOH), have been tasked to monitor the spread of the Ebola virus.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona declared that the Philippines is prepared with a multi-sectoral response plan for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), a health emergency of international concern.

Secretary Ona has designated the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) as the national referral center for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

Recently, the first national Ebola Virus Summit was held in Quezon City with participants coming from different sectors, such as government, private sector, academe, business, medical community, international partners and civil society.

The Philippines so far remains Ebola-free even if there have been 18 persons who may have come in contact with infected persons in Western Africa. All of them tested negative for the virus.

Heartless holduppers

An 11-year-old, Mark Christian Santos, a grade 5 student of Deparo Elementary School in Caloocan, who was selling pandesal in the early morning hours, starting at 5:30 a.m., was held up and threatened with a knife by a holdupper. The suspect took his P200 in earnings, together with his pandesal box.

The poor boy was left crying and shaking on the sidewalk because he lost everything. He was videotaped by a bystander that went viral.

Caloocan Mayor Oca Malapitan learned about the incident and immediately visited the boy and his mother, a labandera.

Mayor Malapitan promised to give the mother a P20,000-starter package and the boy a bicycle.

Good job, Mayor Malapitan.

Once again, this incident demonstrates the bad state of criminality when a holdupper would victimize an 11-year-old boy and deprive him of P200 in earnings from selling pandesal.

One note: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced that they are putting the Santos family on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) beneficiaries list.

Question: Why were they not included before?

Another corrupt agency

The Commission on Audit (COA) has found discrepancies in the Philippines Cococut Authority’s (Philcoa) P330-million fertilization project, for the year 2013.

The COA noted the inadequacy in the monitoring and evaluation of the multimillion-peso project.

The COA noted the incomplete masterlist of farmer participants. It also expressed doubts as to whether the submitted farmers lists are genuine.

Tidbits

According to a survey by pollster Pulse Asia, 36 percent of respondents believe that President Aquino may have broken his promise to follow his “Tuwid na Daan,” while 29 percent believe he has.