By Ellen Tordesillas
Malaya
Malaya
ERC Chair Ducut has a very influential patron.
Two lawmakers who are allies of President Aquino last week filed with the Office of the President a complaint against Chairperson Zenaida Ducut of the Energy Regulatory Commisssion accusing her of failure to protect the interest of the consumers when it approved last December Meralco’s application for a staggering P4.15/kilowatt-hour increase.
“Respondent is guilty of gross neglect of duty by tacitly approving, without the barest hint of due process, the unprecedented generation charges Meralco sought to pass on to consumers in the months of December 2013, February 2014 and March 2014,” Akbayan Partylist Representatives Walden Bello and Ibarra Gutierrez said in their complaint.
It would be interesting to see how Malacañang will handle the complaint considering that last December in Tokyo, Aquino confessed being powerless about the unconscionable increase because he said, “ERC does not report to us, they are independent of us.”
Feeling the public’s anger over the huge power rate increase, Malacañang has since backtracked from its hands-off policy and has ordered an investigation on the suspected collusion by power players to manipulate the energy prices.
Bello and Gutierrez have focused on Ducut, a Gloria Arroyo appointee, whose term at the regulatory agency is still up to 2015.
The two lawmakers said Malacañang can suspend Ducut. But Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said that could take time. “There will now be a process to establish if there’s sufficient basis for the allegations against her. And it’s justifiable that she’s afforded a chance to explain her actions. So far what we have been hearing are allegations coming from the opposing side,” he said.
Bello and Gutierrez suggested another option for Ducut: resignation. But the ERC Chair refused saying, “The professionalism and reputation of the entire ERC organization is at stake here and I will not abandon but will lead my people to what is proper and appropriate. ”
President Aquino and SMC chief at the launch of MMSkyway 3
Coloma, however, said the option of resignation is something “being looked into by observers.”
If there’s somebody who can convince Ducut to resign it should be Ramon Ang, president and chief operating officer of San Miguel Corporation.
A reliable source said Ang was instrumental in the installation of Ducut at the ERC which should be something to be concerned about because San Miguel, with its SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., is one of the major players in the energy sector.
Many have wondered why Ducut was not included in Aquino’s “Tuwid na Daan” sweep like he did with former Chief Justice Renato Corona and former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez considering the ERC chief’s checkered background. According to Inquirer columnist Randy David, “Before she was plucked out of anonymity in 1995 to run as representative of Pampanga’s second district, ERC Chair Zenaida Cruz-Ducut had worked as a lawyer for Bong Pineda, Central Luzon’s alleged “jueteng” lord and kingmaker. Her undistinguished career in Congress spanned nine years, ending in 2004. She ran under Danding Cojuangco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition in 1998, but transferred to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s party after the latter seized the presidency in 2001. Zeny Ducut promptly became GMA’s loyal minion, avidly campaigning for her in the presidential election of 2004 and supporting her son Mikey Arroyo’s bid for the congressional seat she had occupied for nine years.”
Ducut is also implicated by pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy in the malversation case filed before the Ombudsman. Luy said Ducut demanded a five-percent commission for every Priority Development Assistance Fund project she delivered to pork barrel scam operator Janet Napoles.
With Ramon Ang as patron, Ducut indeed is “nakasandal sa pader.”
Last week, at the inauguration of the Tarlac City-Gerona-Paniqui section of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway project, built and operated by Private Infra Dev Corp. Inc. an SMC unit, the President addressed the SMC head as “Siyempre, ating idol po si Mr. Ramon Ang.”
The country was spared the stress of an impeachment trial with the resignation of former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. Someone close to both Aquino and Gutierrez brokered the latter’s resignation.
Will Aquino ask his idol to do the same with Ducut?
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