RAPHAEL Perpetuo Lotilla, then President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s personal choice to head the Department of Energy (DOE), is currently an independent director of AboitizPower Corp., a holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s investments in power generation and distribution as well as retail electricity and other related services.
Aside from being an independent director of AboitizPower, Lotilla was also of ACE Enexor, said consumers’ group, Power for People Coalition (P4P) convenor Gerry Arances, which describes itself as “a publicly-listed company engaged in oil and gas exploration and production.
“Lotilla’s role potentially hurts his eligibility to serve as DOE Secretary,” said Arances.
Arances even said the law requires at least two years of retirement, resignation, or separation from an energy industry office post before being appointed.
In Republic Act 7638 or the Act Creating the DOE, banned it from having a secretary, who was an external auditor, accountant, or legal counsel of any private company or enterprise primarily engaged in the energy industry within two years from his or her retirement, resignation, or separation therefrom.
Earlier, Aboitiz Power Corp announced the resignation of Lotilla, who has been nominated as the next energy secretary.
In a disclosure, Aboitiz cited the “nomination and appointment to government position” as the reason for Lotilla’s resignation effective July 11, 2022.
Arances said the president has picked Lotilla as his Energy Secretary following the issues that his Cabinet faces are fixing the country’s food supply and addressing the rising pump prices.
Meanwhile, according to the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), the DOE and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) would need firm hands to cope with the current crises.
Though, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles clarified, “The designation of lawyer Lotilla is right now a nomination, pending clarification of his employment status.”
Arances said that with the final appointment still up in the air, the challenge is clear and pressing for anyone who takes this post is to bring down electricity rates in the shortest period possible.
“We are aware of the expertise of Mr. Lotilla, having held the post before. But we are concerned that given his ties to the power sector, he may not be coming in as an honest broker and is instead a Trojan horse for corporate interests,” said Arances.
P4P earlier expressed similar concerns on possible appointees to the DOE post, particularly when the name of Energy Regulatory Commission Chairperson Agnes Devanadera was floated, sparking criticism of her history of anti-consumer stances in the energy sector.
“The next DOE Secretary must be pro-consumer,” said Arances adding that once appointed, Lotilla or any other nominee will deal with astronomically high power rates for consumers due to our reliance on fossil fuels such as coal and gas, especially now that we see the country being transformed into a natural gas hub that locks us with high power rates for decades to come.
He can reverse this by picking renewable energy, and we hope he would not be like Cusi who flagrantly flouted Duterte’s policy statements on renewables,” according to Arances.
