Reactivating Presidential Task Force on Energy Contingency

(Published in May 29, 2008.)

The order of President Gloria Arroyo to reactivate the Presidential Task Force on Energy Contingency (PTFEC) is both a tongue-tying and speech-stirring action.

Supposed to be a move to come up with more measures to reduce the economic agony inflicted by the high price of oil especially to the Filipino poor, PTFEC seems to be just another layer of pretense on the national government's efforts to ease the struggles of the Filipino masses.

With the reactivation immediately came the appointment of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as chair and Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes as the vice chair. Both Ermita and Reyes are retired military generals, with Reyes having served the former Southern Command as commander. The two gentlemen have far drawn a strong support from the President herself, and very little positive impression from some concerned citizens.

Earlier created in 2002 with the Departments of National Defense, Transportation and Communications, Trade and Industry, Local Government, Foreign Affairs, and Agriculture, and the National Security Commission as members, the reactivated PTFEC now includes the Departments of Budget and Management, Social Welfare and Development, and Science and Technology, National Economic and Development Authority, Commission on Higher Education, and even the Philippine Information Agency.

Reyes on Tuesday had announced that ''The Task Force will prepare a plan and see to it that the concerns of the public are addressed properly,'' that it "will prepare a plan and see to it that the concerns of the public are addressed properly,'' that the President said that these plans ''must be properly implemented,'' and that the Task Force "will be providing safety nets specially for the vulnerable sector---the transport sector.''

These statements may have been meant to assuage the apprehension of many Filipinos, businessmen and investors foremost, as well as those among the struggling class, that the Philippines is not making its way to the economic quagmire it once was in, but the assurance seems to be mere verbal rhetoric for media mileage.

What concerns some citizens is the realization that the Government in earlier years did not seem to prepare for this economic whiplash, and the pronouncements of Reyes are hurting further Philippine Government's credibility—slapping the fact that our President is supposedly an academic authority on trade and economic relations.

We can only hope that the reactivation of the Task Force is not meant to merely show to the international community that there is some action and concern on the part of the national leadership, and the designation of the heads of the named agencies was carefully thought of.

Task Forces are almost always organized as temporary measures to address immediate priority concerns. Ideally, the designation of the agencies to be involved and the heads of task forces should be devoid of personal political whims and caprices, and we can only hope that in the case of Task Force Energy Contingency, all was well-thought of, not for the personal gain of our national leaders, but well-planned, for the greater need of the majority of the Filipino nation. (Frencie L. Carreon)