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SENATORS
failed to pass Monday an urgent resolution asking
Malacañang to defer Wednesday’s scheduled sale of prime
shares in the Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy
Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC) under a questioned scheme
to raise revenues for the Arroyo administration.
Instead,
Senate leaders opted to devote Monday’s entire plenary
session to lengthy deliberations on a proposed treaty
allowing a swap of convicted criminals imprisoned in
Spain
and Philippine jails
The
Senate adjourned after that without taking up Resolution
203 introduced earlier by Sen. Joker Arroyo seeking
deferment of Wednesday’s PNOC-EDC auction in order to
give senators some time to review its implication.
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. lamented that
Resolution 203 expressing the sense of the Senate on the
issue would have had the force and effect of law if it
was passed on time.
“My
position is that if the delay [in the Senate action on
Senator Arroyo’s resolution] was done on purpose, it
achieved the intention,” Pimentel said. “But aside from
pinning the blame, what is important now is for
President Arroyo to justify the sale and assure the
people that the sale is above board and not a favor to
certain business people.”
For his
part, Senator Arroyo protested that his resolution was
not even on the agenda and he took the floor just before
adjournment to make a parliamentary inquiry on its
status. “I want to know what happened to the resolution
because the sale will take effect on Wednesday.”
Majority
Leader Francis Pangilinan explained that Resolution 203
was referred last week to the Committee on Government
Corporations chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon who,
Pangilinan said, was now out of the country on official
mission and would not be back until late this week.
“If
Senator Gordon does not return before Wednesday, what
happens to my resolution?,” Arroyo asked Pangilinan, who
replied that under Senate rules they would just have to
wait for Gordon to come back.
“It is
very clear I have been had,” Senator Arroyo later told
reporters. “This is obviously a delaying tactic,” he
said, adding that he had informed his fellow senators
about the urgency of passing the resolution before
Wednesday “because we do not know if it would be moot by
then.”
In a
separate interview, Senate President Manuel Villar Jr.
confirmed that Resolution 2003 was not included in
Monday’s agenda but held out hopes the chamber could
still pass the measure. “That can still be passed,” he
said in the vernacular.
Sen. Mar
Roxas, who earlier joined other senators in supporting
Resolution 203, left the session hall on learning that
the leadership was not inclined to take up the matter in
Monday’s session. “They [Senate leaders] don’t want to
take it up; I don’t know why,” Roxas said.
According to Roxas, whether or not the government makes
money in this transaction is irrelevant at this point.
“Our concern is that the State may be giving up control
of an entity with the mandate and capability to explore
new energy resources that may be priceless in the long
run, in favor of increased revenues for this year,” he
explained.
“The
planned privatization of PNOC, which is mandated to
explore, develop and exploit various sources of energy,
including indigenous sources, may not be congruent to
the national interest of finding alternative means to
power our country. The private sector’s interest is in
making money, not particularly in national development,”
he added. |
