Monsada’s empty rhetorics

Ruffy Magbanua

READING the latest pronouncement of newly installed Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada, saying that the cost of repair works on damaged NGCP towers would be passed on to the consumers (Mindanews, page 2, Gold Star Daily, Jan. 13, 2016) got my nerves shaking and – well, bursting with fire and anger!

How dare Monsada muster the guts of issuing such an  irresponsible statement. It came straight from the horse’s mouth. Such action is unbecoming of a cabinetanked government official under   PNoy’s Daang Matuwid  administration.

What was damaging albeit alarming was the failure of the new energy secretary to explain why electric consumers have to pay for the damages not of their own making.

What then is the moral basis of the secretary’s pronouncement? Such an empty statement deserves the resignation of Secretary Monsada no less.

All things considered, her message was damaging in its entirety that deserves a spicy-hot curse, Duterte-style.

Because the approach to end the bombings of NGCP towers in Mindanao is inutile, electric consumers get the brunt of hard beating – emotionally and financially.

True enough,  concerned agencies in the power sector are not in harmony in addressing the mounting right-of-way problem in Mindanao. Minda says that there is no link between the tower bombers and right-of-way claimants.

The DOE says it is still verifying whether the claims of right-of-way have been settled already or not.

Admittedly, the DOE, with all its instrumentalities at hand, has yet to consolidate its ROW records circa 1950s when electric towers were constructed in Mindanao. What a way to settle land claims!

We just hope verifications will not lead to alibis.

Meanwhile, bombings of NGCP towers keep on coming–at the expense of the electric consumers.