Senate ‘banana’ republics 2.0

“Red alert” was raised due to reduced power supply available in the entire Luzon grid. This “red alert” notice has been affecting 1.9 million electricity consumers all over grid. A “red alert” is issued when the electric supply can no longer meet consumer demand.

The Department of Energy (DOE) pointed to transmission constraints that affected the dispatch of large power plants and triggered grid alerts in Luzon and the Visayas as well. To help manage strained power supply condition, distribution utility giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) implemented rotating power interruptions averaging three hours, beginning at 3:23 p.m. starting last Wednesday.

Although we have reduced power supply, the average prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) surged in April. The system-wide WESM rate spiked by 30.6 percent to P5.63 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) in April from the previous month’s P4.31 per kwh.

According to Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga, the WESM supplies around 10 percent of Meralco’s power supply requirements. “Any increase in prices will be reflected in (Meralco) bills of all customers,” Zaldarriaga cited. “This may impact on next billing month. Tight (power) supply usually results to higher prices,” he pointed out. For this month, Meralco announced a very slight reduction of P0.0151 per kwh on household electricity rate.

We consume more electricity as we turn on to cooling appliances due to the sweltering heat. The heat index in many parts of the country has been hitting the “danger” levels. A “danger level” heat index ranges from 42 to 51 degrees Celsius and at this temperature range may cause heat stroke.

The heat is so intense that it also even raised tempers inside the session halls at the Philippine Senate.

A short-fused Senator Robinhood Padilla stood up at the Senate floor last Wednesday still seething over a perceived slight from an elder Senator during the previous day’s sessions. Padilla denounced Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan for having disrespected him. Padilla fumed at what he deemed as rude Pangilinan’s cutting him off from his counter reply during their debate.

Actually, Pangilinan was still finishing a point of order against Padilla’s manifestation. The actor-politician was insisting the new Senate leadership to take up at the floor the chase incident on Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa by arrest warrant servers of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

From six months of absence, Sen. Dela Rosa resurfaced at the Senate and reported back for official duty upon the prodding of fellow minority bloc Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano. As it turned out, Sen. Dela Rosa admitted being secretly picked up by Cayetano’s vehicle to complete the 12 plus one vote to oust Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III as incumbent Senate president.

After a brief chase with NBI agents, Dela Rosa reached the Senate session hall in time to cast his vote in favor of Cayetano to become the new Senate chief. The so-called “24 independent republics” is now likened to a “banana republic” that saw three leadership changes the past three years of its regular sessions.

Still fresh from this leadership change brouhaha, Padilla was interjecting to oppose the point of order of Pangilinan who sided with Sotto against the Senate leadership. “I still have the floor,” Pangilinan countered to complete his point of order.

As agreed and voted by the body, Pangilinan argued, they already voted and agreed to task a Senate committee to investigate this chasing incident at the Senate premises last Monday. “So that we could move on and take up more urgent (legislative) matters,” the veteran Senator explained. After which, he acknowledged the turn of “the gentleman from Camarines Norte” to speak.

But it short-fused Padilla who instead fired back: “Sapagkat gusto ko po sanang ireklamo si Sen. Pangilinan sa pagsigaw. Meron po ba sa rules natin na sinasabing pwede mong sigawan ng kapwa mo Senador?”

Before the exchange between the two Senators escalated, newly installed Senate president pro tempore Loren Legarda, who was the presiding officer, suspended the session. Initially, Legarda tried but failed to appease Padilla that his fellow Senator merely spoke in a “louder voice,” being a former broadcaster.

Despite the proverbial cooler heads stepping between the two feuding Senators, Padilla openly refused to accept Pangilinan’s offered handshake and apology. He threatened to file complaint against Pangilinan in the Senate Ethics Committee.

The next day, Padilla rose again at the Senate floor and complained that Pangilinan broke Senate decorum while holding on to the Senate book on parliamentary rules. Padilla described how Pangilinan angrily glared at him “with burning eyes and high voice.” Padilla explained he refused the offered apology done while sessions were suspended. He insisted the offending Senator should apologize and offer the handshake to him “on the record.”

“So that my children will read on the Senate record no one can shout at a Senator from Muslim Mindanao,” Padilla pointed out. Huh? Why bring in our peaceful brothers over a hurt ego?

While Padilla ranted at the Senate floor, Pangilinan kept his heels cool at his seat. A lawyer by profession, Pangilinan told his colleagues he will just face Padilla’s complaint once filed at the Ethics Committee.

Having covered the Senate as a young reporter, it is not something unusual tempers flare among and between them in heated plenary debates. A neophyte Senator Padilla should know this by now before he blew his top unnecessarily over perceived slight.

On his third year as a senator, Padilla cannot and should not act like a boy who throws tantrum because a senior Senator supposedly “shouted” or “yelled” at him in plenary session. As long as no unparliamentary language is dished out in the course of debate, raising one’s voice is not considered a violation of Senate decorum rules.

From this public spectacle that attended the Senate leadership change, more action-packed drama unfolded later that day. Cayetano cried out in his Facebook livestreaming about an “alleged attack” inside the Senate building.

There is also red alert on the power failure of the present Senate “banana republics.”