MANILA: Seeking emergency powers from Congress to address the looming energy crisis in the country is still one of the options being considered by Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said yesterday.
Lacierda though stressed no decision is expected soon.
“Let us wait for the statement of the President with respect to that. Certainly… one thing that we want to emphasize is that we are going to proactively handle the situation. That’s why we’re recognizing all the concerns of the power sector, as well as the stakeholders, including the citizens. But as to the final decision of the President, let’s just wait for him to issue a directive to the Department of Energy,” Lacierda said in a press briefing.
He said they were aware of the urgency of the situation and had looked into the options suggested by Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla.
“In the end, if you see the State of the Nation Address by the President, he called on and instructed the secretary of energy to discuss this issue with the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission), congressional oversight committee, and also the stakeholders,” Lacierda said.
On Thursday, Petilla told reporters that President Aquino was seriously considering asking Congress to give him emergency powers to address the impending energy crisis in 2015, amid the private sector’s lukewarm response to pleas from the DOE and Manila Electric Co to adopt the Interruptible Load Program.
Petilla stressed the need for the President to make a decision before end of September because of the time constraints in securing government contracts for modular generator sets, which should by then be ready before the start of the summer season in 2015.
Petilla said in their meeting last Friday, they were only able to get a commitment of 27 megawatts from the private sector.
He said he would only retract his recommendation on seeking emergency powers for the President if the government would get commitments from the private sector which would be sufficient to address the looming crisis.
The Philippine star
