DOJ chief wants Tinga for energy post

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez strongly recommended yesterday the appointment of former Taguig Rep. Dante Tinga as secretary of the Department of Energy.

In his letter to President Arroyo, Perez stressed that the position should go to Tinga since the former lawmaker’s record "reflects the ability and competence to find a happy balance between conflicting interests of energy industry players, consumers and environmentalists and at the same time withstand the pressures and importunings of these competing sectors."

Raul Concepcion, chairman of Consumer Oil Price Watch, expressed a similar observation in a letter to the President.

Perez explained that the new energy secretary shall preside over the restructuring of the power industry and the privatization of the National Power Corp. with the expected approval of the proposed Omnibus Power Act after the elections. With the demand to reduce the electric power rates in the country, which is the second highest in Asia, the power bill may become one of the centerpieces of the Arroyo administration, Perez said.

The power bill is currently under review by the bicameral conference of the Senate and the House of Representatives with the executive branch.

"The challenge is right along Tinga’s alley since the power bill was his policy initiative during the second half of the Ramos administration. Tinga directed the researches on the bill and evolved the final version which was endorsed to the House for plenary debate," Perez said.

"Unfortunately, the bicameral conference committee in the present Congress had reportedly approved a mangled version. That is why the Cabinet has recommended a review of the version," Perez explained.

Tinga conducted extensive researches for the power act and even held working visits to jurisdictions which have experience in power restructuring such as the United Kingdom, Norway, Spain, Australia and California.

A bar topnotcher and former dean of the University of the East College of Law with graduate studies in the United States, Tinga chaired the House committee on energy for six years. He steered the enactment of all the laws which addressed the crippling power crises in the early 1990s.

He is known as the father of the new DOE, having managed the passage of the Department of Energy Act in a record time of three days from the filing of the bill to the signing of the measure by then President Fidel Ramos.