Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - Filipino consumers will just have to live with rising fuel and electricity prices, according to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
"(Filipinos) and no one else should be paying more for their
electric consumption and petroleum purchases, Enrile said in an
interview with dzBB radio on Sunday.There's nothing you can do about it. Who will pay (for higher power rates), the Lord? We should experience hardships to learn," the senator said.
Enrile lashed out at those peddling theories and warning of an impending revolt, taking unnamed critics to task for spreading speculations and blabbering, engaging in debates and finger-pointing."
We should face the problem head-on, shunning useless talk. We should do our job. All of us should sacrifice for the country, and not just think of ourselves," he said.
The Philippine Palace should not be blamed for its inability to forestall the power crisis in Mindanao, the senator said.
It is too late to blame anyone in and outside of government for the rotating brown-outs in Mindanao," he said.
He even branded as foolishness the bills now pending in Congress seeking to grant emergency powers to President Benigno Aquino III, or reducing the value-added tax on fuel.
We don't need that that's foolishness. They talk of emergency powers, what can the President do (with them)? He has too many powers. He's the Chief Executive of the country. He can borrow money, negotiate contracts, he can deal with other countries to solve (the power problems)," said Enrile.
Enrile believes the Philippines erred in refusing to tap nuclear power as an alternative source of electricity.
We dont want nuclear power, we are afraid to die (from nuclear accidents). We thought we will live forever that is not the case. Other countries are prospering because they took a chance at using nuclear power, we (aren't) because we have (this) backward thinking," he said.
We have to take a chance in life. We can't be 100 per cent safe. There's always a margin of risk in life," he said.
The first Aquino administration in 1986 mothballed the Marcos-era Bataan Nuclear Power Plant over safety concerns and because the contract for it was attended by corruption. But the government did not provide for alternative power sources to replace what the BNPP would have produced, which was a direct cause of the dreadful Luzon power crisis in the 1990s.
To remedy the situation in Mindanao, Enrile said he supported the government decision to deploy mobile power barges while the Agus and Napindan dams, the main sources of hydroelectric power in the island, are being fixed.
"(We should) find other sources of hydro-power in Mindanao and if necessary put up coal-fired power plants," he said. Well have to do it. There's no other way unless we use our trees for fuel," he said.
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Reaction
Mindanao is currently experiencing power crisis but, other people still have the time on spreading speculations and blabbering, engaging in debates on who is to blame for such problem. Since the problem has already occur, I think it is best for us to just think and look for necessary solutions instead of pointing and blaming others (in and outside government ) for the inability to forestall the power crisis in Mindanao. Still, the government must take fast action to remedy such problem because a lot is being affected in this crisis like business establishments, schools, household stuffs and the like.This problem also happened before and I think government must really have the proper, right and stable solution so that power shortages will not happen again. As of the moment, I think we should just go with the alternatives such as the tap nuclear power as a source of electricity, as long as it does not have any harmful effects on human.
