Tulfo says Senate panel to summon coops, agencies on brownouts
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Raffy Tulfo is taking a strong stance against electric cooperatives, saying his office has received complaints about power interruptions lasting up to 12 hours in Oriental Mindoro.
At a press briefing at the Senate on Monday morning, the former broadcaster said that he would push for hearings "as soon as possible" to "expose" what he said were lapses in keeping the lights on. Senate committees may call for hearings when a resolution is filed to hold them, or initiate them on their own.
"It's very clear, the problem was ignored by electric companies and cooperatives. It seems that the norm in startiing up an electric company and acquiring a franchise is that 'it's not what you know it's who you know,'" he said in Filipino.
Tulfo set his sights on government agencies, too, saying the National Electrification Administration, Department of Energy, and even local government units were "not doing enough" to address the power rates and outages that have affected Filipinos outside Metro Manila.
Tulfo, who chairs the Senate energy panel, said that even former officials of energy-related agencies would also be summoned.
"This has to stop. They can't just keep giving us excuses forever. In the hearing, they will tell us what the problems are one by one," he said in mixed Filipino and English.
RELATED: Solar power offers students in unelectrified Laiban a chance to catch up
Tulfo said that Congress would require technical, financial and legal assessments before granting franchises to electric cooperatives, but that the requirement for a technical assessment has since been removed.
"It's now very lax, anyone can get a franchise, anybody can put up an agency...siguro naman it doesn't take a rocket scientist," he also said as he implied that politics was also behind the issue.
Asked if he would recommend the cancellation of franchises, Tulfo said: "If it's needed, if that's what we see, then yes. That's why we need all agencies present at the meeting. We will talk about it."
"It is not up to Congress to decide the next step, they can investigate in aid of legislation, but that's up to the agencies of government," he said.
- Latest
- Trending
