An incredulous Senate inquiry

By Herbert Vego

 

LAWYER Dominador Tersol, a former consultant at the Iloilo Governor’s Office, deplores the conflicting views of national government officials vis-à-vis the confidential disclosure agreement entered into by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez and an unnamed China official.

Tersol noted in a Facebook post that while Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra vouches for absolute transparency in vaccine procurement, the others would not care to listen.

The way Tersol sees it, confidential disclosure agreements are null and void for being contrary to the full disclosure policy of the State as provided in Section 28, Article II of 1987 Constitution, to wit:

“Subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law, the State adopts and implements a policy of full disclosure of its transactions involving public interest.”

Tersol also cited violation of Section 7, Article III:

“The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents, pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to limitation as may be prescribed by law.”

We used to think that the Senate, in its inquiry into the government’s vaccination program, would – as announced — grill vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on the procurement of overpriced Sinovac vaccines from China.

In the January 22 probe, however, Senate President Tito Sotto ended up “respecting” Galvez viewpoint on the “non-disclosure” deal aimed at preserving diplomacy with Beijing.

Only Sen. Rizza Hontiveros waxed shocked over the czar’s statement urging the Senate to set aside its “differences” with China over her intrusion at the West Philippine Sea while aiming to win the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oh oh… Sounds Greek. Had the senators gotten scared on reading the news that the President had instructed Galvez to walk out if “disrespected” in the Senate inquiry?

Oh well, the senators must have momentarily forgotten that Galvez’ boss and theirs are one.

 

AN AFTERNOON WITH THE IVISAN MAYOR

THIS writer recently met Mayor Felipe Neri “Ipe” Yap of Ivisan, Capiz for the first time over lunch at Tatoy’s Manokan in Villa Arevalo. We were with retired Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) official Raquel Muzones Chavez, among other common friends.

Ivisan may rightly be called Yap country. His mother Amelia had been unbeaten mayor until Ipe took over.  His brother Noel both succeeded and preceded him for three terms (2007-2013), respectively. Ipe, — elected in 2013 re-elected in 2016 and 2019 — is once more on his third term.

I told him I had never been to his town but had often passed by it during trips to Roxas City. To which he replied his office was always open to visiting broadcasters and journalists. That served as an invitation.

Incidentally, nobody in any of the 15 barangays in Ivisan (population: 30,000-plus) has died of COVID-19. All of the 33 documented cases have recovered, proving that the disease is not as deadly as projected in the media.

He admitted though that the COVID pandemic had almost stalled the tourism industry. But the tourist spots and the hotels thereat are now regaining business.

Like Boracay, Ivisan is dotted with islands and islets, some uninhabited, available for island-hopping on boats for hire.  Among them are Marocol Gamay, Marocol Dako, Mahabang Pulo, Malakha and Tuwad.

One of the favored destinations in Ivisan is the Basiao Beach in Barangay Basiao, which is famous for its one kilometer of Boracay-like white sand.

A shoreline municipality on Capiz eastern side, Ivisan relies on fishing as its main source of livelihood. It is abundant in shrimp, crabs, oysters, and practically all kinds of familiar fish.

Ivisanons are hard-working. Even the children of the hard-up are motivated to take up TESDA courses like driving, carpentry, welding and cookery.

 

MORE POWER BEGS FOR MORE TIME TO IMPROVE SERVICE

IT is impossible to please everybody, as the management of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has found out in its first 11 months of operation as distribution franchisee for Iloilo City.

In fact, MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro, in radio interviews, waxed sympathetic to individuals who had expressed displeasure over alleged power disconnections sans advance notices; and delayed lumped or undelivered billings to which they attribute their inability to pay.

Since such complaints could be legitimate in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Castro proposed to accept staggered payments for months preceding the current dues and to have disconnection notices received by customers concerned.

The biggest reason for delayed billings is the difficulty of locating transferees from one address to another.

The transition from PECO to MORE on February 29, 2020 was not smooth due to legal issues arising from the former’s non-recognition of the franchise law (RA 11212).  The latter had to go to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the list of active power customers.

If I may say my two cents’ worth on “unaffordability” of paying  accumulated, lumped bills, it could have been avoided had the power users set aside money for each month’s estimated consumption based on their payments to the previous power distributor, Panay Electric Co. (PECO).

The consumer base in the transition from PECO to MORE in only 11 months has expanded from 65,000 to more than 70,000 households and counting. The fast growth reflects the conversion of some of the 30,000 power pilferers into legitimate, paying users.

Needless to say, such conversion has minimized the system’s loss that is partially charged to legal users. The less the system’s loss, the less amount the legitimate customers pay.

The usual misconception is that the distribution utility (DU) amasses so much profit from its customers that it can sustain temporary losses. But the truth of the matter is that it gets only around 10 percent of the payments collected because it remits the generation charges to power generators like Panay Power Corp. (PPC), Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) and Aboitiz Renewables, among others.

Anyway, let us hold MORE Power accountable for its promise to spend at least P1.9 billion in its modernization program in the next three years.