The Commission on Appointments (CA) has deferred action on another Marcos Cabinet member, citing lack of material time, even as it cleared the ad interim appointments of Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople and Commission on Audit Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba.
Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, chairman of the CA’s Committee on Energy, presided over the deliberation on the ad interim appointment of Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla as Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE). The panel suspended on Tuesday Lotilla’s appointment due to lack of material time.
“On the motion of the [Assistant] Majority Leader Sen. Joseph Victor ‘JV’ Ejercito, we suspend the deliberation on the ad interim appointment of Raphael Lotilla, Secretary of the Department of Energy, to resume until further notice,” Legarda said.
Ejercito said certain CA members had questions to ask of the nominee. The advisory also said the panel has to tackle the opposition to Lotilla’s appointment filed by former DOE Undersecretary Petronilo Ilagan, now president of the National Association of Electricity Consumer for Reforms (Nasecor).
More than 10 lawmakers were scheduled to propound questions to Lotilla, but only three were able to deliberate on his appointment.
Earlier, Legarda said the mandate of the DOE secretary is to prepare, integrate, coordinate, supervise and control all plans, programs, projects, activities of the state relative to energy exploration, development, utilization, distribution and conservation.
“The department requires a leader who can champion sustainable energy policies while steering the energy industry toward becoming energy resilient and independent in the face of both energy crisis, a climate crisis and a spate of oil price hikes,” Legarda said.
Lotilla was the second appointee of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr., whose appointment was suspended by the body. The first was Erwin Tulfo as secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development who was questioned by the body on his citizenship and his convictions on four counts of libel.
At Tuesday’s hearing of the CA subcommittee, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero asked Lotilla for his viewpoints on encouraging more competition between energy cooperatives operating in the country.
Escudero brought up franchise issues surrounding two energy cooperatives in Iloilo where Congress, in the past, chose to grant only one franchise over the other. “Just to clarify, does the Executive department encourage Congress to grant more than one franchise in an area, in the spirit of competition?” Escudero asked.
Lotilla, despite choosing not to hazard a direct answer at this time, referred to a previous case where Congress chose to grant an electric corporation a franchise to extend its services in an adjoining franchise area, thereby giving users another option to consider. Lotilla also referred the committee to Republic Act No. 9136, otherwise known as the Epira Law and reiterated the choices available to electric cooperatives to decide what’s best for their operations: Whether to remain as an electric cooperative under the National Electrification Administration, become a stock corporation under the Corporation Code or to operate as a stock cooperative under the Cooperatives Development Act.
Toots gets CA nod
Meanwhile, the CA’s Committee on Labor, Employment, Social Welfare and Migrant Workers endorsed for plenary confirmation the ad interim appointment of Maria Susana “Toots” Ople as secretary of the DMW.
Ople, daughter of the late Blas F. Ople who was Labor secretary in the 70s and early 80s, has been hailed as the woman tailor-fitted for the job.
“Mr. Chairman, Your Honors, when my father—the late and former DFA Secretary Senate President Ka Blas Ople—died on December 14, 2013, I pledged to dedicate my life to helping our migrant workers. It was and continues to be my way of honoring him, of keeping him close to me, and remembering the legacy he worked hard for,” Ople said. The bicameral body later in the afternoon approved the appointment of Ople to the post.