Overreach

The tensions within the ruling coalition are not abating. The greater likelihood is that the personality clashes that surfaced the past few weeks will become more severe as realignments happen in preparation for the midterm elections.

At a recent event, Vice-President Sara Duterte professed support for President Marcos Jr. but added that his middle name was unspeakable. That was an obvious jab at House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the President’s first cousin.

The supermajority at the House initially tried to downplay the friction, pleading for unity to accomplish the administration agenda. The past few days, however, their tone has become more confrontational. They now appear readier to deal with the “Sara problem” head on.

Rep. L-Ray Villafuerte, staunchly allied with Martin Romualdez, has taken Sara to task for overreaching into the affairs of the House. He noted that while Sara was mere mayor of Davao City, she used her influence to cause the ouster of then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. When disagreement over term-sharing broke out between Alan Peter Cayetano and Lord Allan Velasco, Sara was said to have influenced the outcome in favor of the latter.

Villafuerte did not go on to discuss in greater detail the internal politics last month leading to the demotion of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from “senior deputy speaker” to mere deputy speaker. Reacting to that event, Sara promptly resigned from the Lakas party, condemning the “execrable” politicking that she suggests was responsible for that demotion. Later, she would warn against an unnamed politician she described as a “tambaloslos” – a despicable forest creature in Visayan mythology.

Sara is seen closely aligned with Arroyo. Along with Senator Imee Marcos, they formed the powerful triumvirate that toppled Alvarez from his post in a messy coup that stole the thunder from president Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation speech.

In the initial statements in the wake of the ruckus over Arroyo’s demotion, Romualdez allies did suggest a coup against the sitting Speaker was nipped in the bud. Although no one ever directly accused Arroyo of plotting a coup against Romualdez, the sum of all the chatter of the days following did indicate something of that sort was underway. Arroyo expressed disinterest in playing a leadership role in the chamber.

Villafuerte warns that the Vice President’s repeated interference in the internal affairs of the House violates the separation of powers and upset the balance of power in government. The subtext here appears to implicate Sara in some attempt to wrest power from Romualdez.

Villafuerte thinks Sara’s “meddling” in the House of Representatives “is a cause for significant concern.” This, he adds, “raises questions about her understanding of the constitutional limits of her office.”

Implicating Sara in some effort to reassign power in the House raises a notch the tone of this continuing rivalry within the ruling coalition.

Forthright

Last Friday, yet another power outage happened at the NAIA. Although this one last just over half an hour, it roused memories of the great New Year’s Day shutdown of our airspace.

As in previous outages, some people were quick to suggest sabotage – albeit without a shred of evidence to offer. An irate Juan Ponce Enrile called for the purging of all the airport’s managers.

Power – and more important, calm – was restored immediately. Meralco emergency crews were immediately on top of the situation, restoring power and tracing the source of the problem.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga was quickly on air in his usual and calm manner. He responded in the best way possible: by speaking the truth. That quashed all unfounded speculation about sabotage in the country’s premier gateway. The power distribution giant followed up quickly with an official statement and public apology.

It turns out, an MServ worker accidentally left a grounding conductor attached to a piece of electrical equipment during testing activity. This caused the brief power failure. MServ is a subsidiary of Meralco extending expert assistance to consumers.

MServ personnel were at the airport to help do an electrical audit of the facility. Recall that after the last outage, Meralco president Manuel Pangilinan committed to help fix the electrical facilities at the airport at no expense to government. The DOTr gratefully accepted Meralco’s offer.

Accidents happen. Meralco immediately took responsibility for what happened last Friday. A whole horde of jumpy bureaucrats and politicians did not have enough time to foment alarm and introduce conspiracy theories of every sort.

In its official statement, Meralco unveiled specific recommendations to ensure the smoother conduct of succeeding audit and testing activities at the NAIA. Among these recommendations are the strict implementation of a “toolbox meeting” among personnel of the MIAA, MServ and Meralco prior to any activity.

In particular, a team composed of representatives from the three entities will conduct a thorough joint inspection of the work area prior to energization of the facilities being tested. This will help prevent a repeat of the operational error that caused last Friday’s accident.

A power outage is always an unnerving event – just as severe weather and other natural calamities are. Meralco is always at the frontline during the most unnerving moments. In addition to dispatching emergency crews to repair any damage to their network, the giant power distribution utility must also lead in reassuring our people and preventing panic from breaking out.

Meralco is fortunate to have Joe Zaldarriaga as its spokesman. Over the past so many years, he has been a soothing – and clearly spoken – presence during the most distressing emergencies.