Energy, Trade chiefs hurdle Commission on Appointments

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Appointments (CA) finally confirmed yesterday Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo.

The CA also started deliberations on the appointment of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, but the hearing was deferred after Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said that he would like to ask the defense official more questions at the next hearing.

During the CA hearings last year, Almendras’ confirmation was deferred because of two issues raised by Iloilo 4th District Rep. Ferjenel Biron against him.

Biron wanted Almendras to act on a bribery case that was taken up by the National Electrification Administration board and to investigate the alleged anomalies in the sale of a diesel-fired power plant in Dingle, Iloilo.

Both cases came up and were settled during the term of Almendras’ predecessor but he vowed to look into them and find out what he could do to accommodate the requests of Biron.

During yesterday’s hearing, Biron had a change of heart and even recommended the confirmation of Almendras after the secretary “satisfactorily complied with and made assurances to help pursue the cases against the people involved.”

“Congressman Biron had very legitimate concerns. I need to put that on record. He wanted a reinvestigation of a case. There’s a very good reason he wanted that and we did it,” Almendras said.

The CA hearing also took up the opposition raised by lawyer Victoriano Orocio against Almendras’ appointment, which dealt with the settlement sought by a group of employees of the National Power Corp. (NPC) who were illegally dismissed in 2003.

Orocio said Almendras refused to do what is right and strongly resisted settling the claims of his clients even though the courts have ruled on the case.

Orocio’s more than 9,000 clients were demanding P33.7-billion compensation from the NPC.

Almendras admitted that he refused to address the claims of Orocio because he had no authority to compromise the money of the people of the Philippines.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court issued a status quo ante order to prevent the Quezon City regional trial court from garnishing the assets of NPC to settle the claims of the employees.

“That is P33 billion and that money will either come from the people who pay their electric bills or will come from the people who pay taxes to the Republic. I absolutely have no authority to negotiate a compromise to that effect,” Almendras said.

On the part of Domingo, he welcomed the relatively easy time that he had with the CA as the head of one of the less controversial departments of government.

The CA members asked Gazmin to address the issues on the growing number of retirees of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the dissolution of the Retirement and Separation Benefits System of the AFP.

The lawmakers also asked Gazmin to explain the allegedly excessive expenses incurred by the defense department for the landscaping of gardens and maintenance of a koi pond at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Gazmin explained that the koi was a gift from a friend of his undersecretary, which he placed in the lagoon of the DND.

The landscaping, on the other hand, was contracted by his predecessor and had nothing to do with his wife who used to be engaged in a landscaping business.

It was also revealed that Gazmin’s name was submitted to the CA for confirmation as ambassador to Israel in 2001 even though he never received such an appointment.

Gazmin said that he was appointed only as ambassador to Cambodia from 2002 to 2004.