Groups reiterate to PNoy: Sack Petilla

MANILA, Philippines - Several labor groups on Wednesday called on President Benigno Aquino III to sack Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla for allegedly deceiving the public with his fabricated power shortage scenario feared to hit the entire Luzon island by April 2015. 

 

Officials of the Department of Energy admitted during a congressional hearing that the projected deficit in supply for the coming summer of 2015 is only about 21 to 31 MW, a far cry from the 1,200 MW shortfall projected by Petilla.

 

"He bluffed the president, the cabinet, the senators and the congressmen, the business sectors, the labor and consumer groups with his tall tales of thin power reserves to justify emergency powers that entails possible purchase of multi-billion peso generator sets. Mr. Petilla deliberately exposed the country to unnecessary jeopardy that has been discouraging job-creating investments away since he came out with his bogus story in July,” Josua Mata of Sentro-Nagkaisa, one of Nagkaisa convenors, said in a statement.

 

Mata said Petilla should redeem himself and resign his post.

 

Petilla earlier proposed costly lease agreements from independent power producers to fill up the capacity gap in two years. Another option was to top existing capacities from industries’ embedded generator sets under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP).

 

Another convenor, Louie Corral, executive director of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagakisa, said that had the government acted as early as 2011, it  could have started building new capacities by building new power plants.

 

"The only time we will support emergency powers is when the government finally decides to take over the whole industry with the utmost objectives of bringing down the price and securing a sustainable power supply not only for present needs but also for the next generations to come," Corral said.