Hustling

The powerful syndicates associated with the now-banned POGO operations in the country apparently have long tentacles – and staying power.

Recently, President Marcos vetoed a bill granting citizenship to a Chinese national who has deep ties with the POGO syndicates. The naturalization bill easily passed both the House and the Senate.

Now, the Justice Secretary himself reveals that another Chinese national, detained at the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), managed to win release on dubious grounds. Chinese national Wang Yushi was released “in recognizance” to his lawyer and managed to book a flight back to his homeland. He was, however, intercepted at the airport.

Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla named PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio as the official responsible for the release of the detainee “on bail, through recognizance.” The release, Remulla points out, was wrong on several counts.

To begin with, the release of a detained foreign national on recognizance can only be authorized by the Bureau of Immigration commissioner. The issuance of a deportation order falls solely under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Immigration Board of Commissioners. This is composed of the Commissioner and two deputy commissioners.

Based on PAOCC documents, it was Casio who authorized Wang’s release through recognizance. It was also he who approved the detainee’s voluntary deportation to China. This is patently “ultra vires” or outside the scope of his authority.

The name Winston Casio should ring a bell. He previously drew controversy after he was caught on video slapping a Filipino POGO worker during a raid in Bataan. He was initially relieved of his post because of the incident. He was reinstated after making a public apology – and also because he is rumored to be close to senior officials at the Office of the President.

Casio denied the accusation. But the release document – on stationary of the Office of the President – showed his signature.

“Dumidiskarte ng sarili si Casio,” was how Remulla described this incident. He meant that the PAOCC official was acting on his own. One can also understand this to mean he was hustling independently.

This case is sorry testament to the integrity and professionalism of the mean and women of the PAOCC. Reporting directly to the Office of the President, this is a vital frontline agency in the effort to curb criminality. This is supposed to be an elite, battle-hardened law enforcement unit leading the effort against organized crime.

A single senior official of the PAOCC, acting on his own, defying the jurisdiction of other agencies of government to favor a detainee suspected of high-level involvement in the cash-rich POGO syndicates is not a good look.

The Executive Secretary should have something to say about this.

Inadequate capacity

As the days grow hotter, our energy reserves grow thinner. With higher consumption and more frequent plant breakdowns, we are likely to see more yellow and red alerts issued the coming days.

We can never attract investments, especially in manufacturing, if our energy supply is considered vulnerable. The bottomline is we need more investments in generating capacity. More precisely, we need investments that will improve our base load capacity – more than in fashionable renewable energy projects that deliver power intermittently.

It is the task of the Department of Energy (DOE) to realize that capacity. If they are not delivering on this, the least our energy officials could do is to avoid misleading the people about the exact nature of the problem.

In the course of a press conference held last April 14, DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan, discussing higher prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), made some misleading statements about Meralco and the distribution utility’s recent Power Supply Agreement (PSA) with Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (EERI).

Under the recent PSA, Meralco contracts 1,200 MW base load supply from EERI. The supplier is among the several winners in the competitive bidding conducted by Meralco last year. The bidding was for a total of 1,800 MW in supply. This bidding is closely supervised by the Energy Regulatory Commission and the DOE. The power distributor complied with all the strict technical, financial and legal requirements of the regulators.

Marasigan seemed to imply that the PSA with EERI was more expensive. That is untrue. All the bids were reviewed by the ERC as well as by the DOE.

The DOE official likewise suggested that the delay in delivery of EERI’s supply somehow caused a spike in the WESM. This is certainly inaccurate. The recent spike in prices in the wholesale electricity market was entirely due to unplanned outages. Because the country has thin energy reserves, the plant outages caused the spike.

The PSA’s are very comprehensive agreements. For instance, if the commercial operation of the supplier is somehow delayed, the agreement provides that Meralco will only have to pay the lower amount of the actual cost of replacement power and consistent with the rates approved by the ERC. This is meant to protect the distribution utility’s customers.

In a word, all the agreed price levels in the power supply agreements are throughly reviewed and approved by the ERC. The tariff (the rates consumers pay) is understood to be the least-cost option procured by the electricity distributor.

The power industry is among the most tightly regulated sectors of our economy. Instead of blaming the energy suppliers, the assistant secretary should focus on why our energy reserves remain low.