PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to file plunder charges against the defiant officials of the Energy Regulatory Commission who have refused to resign following allegations of corruption in their agency.
He also threatened to give them no budget.
“If they won’t resign, I will conduct my own audit and I will sue all of them in court,” Duterte told reporters late Wednesday night after arriving at the Davao International Airport from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Lima.
“I demand that they all resign. We will abolish their office. I will not grant them a single centavo.”
Duterte on Monday demanded the resignation of ERC officials after ERC Director Francisco Villa Jr. committed suicide on November 9 after allegedly being pressured to approve procurement contracts and hire consultants.
His sister, broadcaster Rosario Sofia Villa, said her brother had told her that the ERC contracts were rigged and being executed before the actual bidding.
ERC Commissioners Ina Asirit, Alfredo Non and Gloria Victoria Taruc have all said they will not resign so as not to create a vacuum that will affect the agency’s work. A fourth commissioner, Geronimo Sta. Ana, did not issue a statement.
ERC chairman Jose Vicente Salazar has said he is waiting for Duterte to return from Peru “to give him a fuller picture of the current developments at the ERC.”
Duterte said he had already “directed a comprehensive review of all legal remedies to overhaul and effect fundamental changes in the agency,” including the officials.
“How can I serve the people with a corrupt government like what’s happening in your office?” Duterte said.
He likewise quizzed the ERC officials for the high power prices.
“That’s why you have fixed terms, because you are to hear cases about the increase of electricity prices and all and here you are wallowing in corruption. Why?”
Duterte said he was thinking about the possibility stopping the hiring of consultants in government projects who “receive millions every month.”
He said he was also planning to open up the competition to hasten the entry of new players in the power and energy sector.
“The only way to make this country move faster to benefit the poor is to really open up communications, the airwaves and the entire energy sector,” he said.
He criticized the slow internet and high cost of power in the country.
He said he might open up the telecoms sector to foreign players if the local companies failed to deliver.
He slammed the energy sector for operating like a cartel.