The House of Representative is set to vote this week on the proposed Joint Resolution 21 (which was approved by the House Committee on Energy last week), granting emergency powers to President Aquino to hopefully address the looming power shortage in Luzon next year.
To recall, at the middle of this year, PNoy asked congress to grant him such powers. This proposed joint resolution focuses on the Interruptible Load Program, in which, “large commercial and industrial establishments will disconnect from the grid and use their own generators during peak hours to free power for use of households and other small users”.
Same resolution sets aside the proposal of the Department of Energy to buy or lease power barges to the tune of P20 billion. Expected to pad cost by P200 million (P500 million per DOE estimate), it is, according to the house leadership, still the cheaper alternative. Such cost, as the proposed joint resolution provides, shall be funded by or paid through the government share of the Malampaya gas well operations in Palawan.
Temporary solution, this may be (as usual), still, at the very least, is tenable. However, despite its acceptability, the general public is quite apprehensive. Not because this is simply temporary but because of doing this via emergency powers. As we all know, the pre-Martial Law babies (and are grown-ups during the martial law era) are allergic to it. We can’t blame them. To recall, after falsely justifying that the alleged communist-led uprising or violence was on the rise and have remained unabated, former Pres. Marcos declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972. In declaring a state of emergency, he then stressed that he needed extra powers to quell such rising violence. As years rolled, as we all know, he used such power not just to oppress hapless citizens but amass wealth as well.
However, before we get carried away, we have to remind ourselves that at one point in our history, congress also granted emergency powers to then Pres. Ramos. Similarly, it was granted to address the power crisis in Luzon. To recall, in the latter part of the late Pres. Cory Aquino’s term, power shortages were already felt and withstood by us. Thus, as then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos assumed office in 1992 that was the first challenge he faced. Then, former Pres. Ramos requested that “congress enact a law that would create an Energy Department to plan and manage the Philippines' energy sector”. Actually, he did not only get what he requested, he was also given special emergency powers to resolve the very serious power crisis. So that, he issued licenses to several independent power producers to construct additional power plants. To encourage investors, he even went to the extent of signing supply agreements that guaranteed that the government would buy whatever power the IPPs shall produce under the contract. Not only that, to further encourage foreign IPPs, the supply contracts were denominated in US dollars. Thus, when the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis came about, our peso devalued and power cost became unbearable. Consequently, since then and until today, our cost of electricity became Asia’s second highest, just next to the world’s third largest economy, Japan.
Clearly, therefore, through such emergency powers, if appropriately used, our lingering energy woes maybe solved. One caveat though, we tend to only focus on what’s at hand. We, oftentimes, deal only with solutions that are so myopic or shortsighted. Thus, as has always been, we are able to solve what’s ongoing but fails to address future needs or problems. So that after two decades, not only that we have to bear the brunt of higher power cost, we also have to contend with the worsening lack of it.
Thus, whether with emergency powers or not, this government, in trying to look for the right prescription, must be forward looking. Remember, as we speak, in Cebu alone, we see a lot of ongoing developments, like mega malls, skyscrapers (office and residential condominiums and IT buildings), subdivisions, hospitals and factories. The same is true with other key cities in the Visayas, Mindanao and Metro Manila. When completed, all these structures will become permanent users of huge loads. Therefore, if the government will remain to be myopic, the power situation may not improve at all.
In fact, if left unattended, in the very near future, residents will be forced to use gas lamps and businessmen shall be compelled to run their factories with their own generators 24/7. Considering the prices of diesel these years, businesses (especially, factories) had to bear the brunt of higher manufacturing cost. Worst, not only are these power shortages be forcing companies to operate their own generators in millions of pesos a day in diesel fuel, those who can’t afford to have one have to pay workers even when the factories won’t operate. How long can they last? We don’t know. Definitely though, as businessmen, they have to unload to survive. More likely, they shall get rid of idle employees. Consequently, a lot of our countrymen will be rendered jobless. That’s a no-brainer.