The report that about 60,000 workers would lose their jobs in the troubled electronics industry showed the devastating impact of the global economic meltdown.  Intel Philippines is closing all its plants resulting in the termination of 6,000 workers while Texas Instruments has already laid off a thousand workers due to weak demand for semiconductors and other electronic products which account for 60 percent of the country’s exports.

The Semiconductors and Electronics Industry of the Philippines Inc. is asking the government for a package of assistance to enable the industry to survive and to prevent further job losses.  The assistance is mainly in the form of lower power rates, funds for retraining and longer credit lines.

SEIPI chairman Arthur Young says the current power rates and discounts they are getting are just not enough to keep them from downsizing and from retrenching people.   He says it is about time the government should seriously consider eliminating the royalty on natural gas—widely used as fuel for power plants—in order to bring down power rates. “The reduction of natural gas royalties to lower electricity cost is especially needed in these trying times when the costs of production inputs are beginning to undermine the viability of Philippine industries due to the soaring price of oil,” he adds.

  Actually, leaders of the business community have long been pressing the government for the scrapping of the value- added tax on electricity and the royalty on natural gas to reduce power cost by as much as 50 percent. They have gained the support of influential members of Congress who recognize the urgency of correcting an unfavorable situation in which power cost in the Philippines remains the second highest in Asia after Japan. The high power cost is one of the main reasons that discourage the inflow of foreign investments.

  Players in the power industry deplore that the rate of royalty slapped on natural gas is the highest in the region. They say this serves as a disincentive to investors and is inconsistent with the government’s policy to attract more investments in the development and exploration of indigenous energy sources. The government computes its levies on Malampaya gas by indexing it on oil, which has the effect of treating it as an imported commodity when in fact is sourced locally. This has long been pointed out as erroneous and unfair by power industry players but finance and energy officials of the government have turned a deaf ear to their objection.

  At present, the government is charging a royalty of P1.79 per kilowatt hour and a VAT of 21 centavos per kilowatt hour of electricity generated from the Malampaya gas.

  In effect, what the stakeholders in the semi-conductors and electronic and the power industries are proposing is for them to be provided much needed subsidy in the form of the removal of the VAT and royalty from natural gas. This will form part of the economic stimulus package that the Arroyo administration has been trying to put together to rescue distressed sectors of the economy in these difficult times.

  It is true that the government will lose hefty revenues from this drastic measure.  But the revenue loss will be compensated by saving ailing firms from collapse and closure and keeping workers secure in their jobs.  This will also be compensated by the entry of new investments that will be encouraged by lower and reasonable power costs. The reduced power rates will benefit not only industries but also ordinary households.

Economists and business analysts have forcefully argued that exempting natural gas from VAT and royalty will go a long way in helping pump-prime the economy.  Besides, this will erase the lingering public cynicism about the government’s determination to bail out struggling industries through its much-ballyhooed economic stimulus package.

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Lately, fierce verbal clashes have erupted on the floor of the Senate over the festering problem of absenteeism among the senators, resulting in the lack of quorum. Usually, there is more than enough number of senators at the start of the day’s session.  But some of the senators would quietly slip out of the session hall after the roll call. Oftentimes, only a few members—including Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Minority Leader  Aquilino Pimentel Jr. would be left at the hall.  The disappearing act of their colleagues happens even when somebody is delivering a sponsorship or privilege speech or when important bills are being debated on the floor.

On Feb. 2, after noticing the lack of quorum while Senator Loren Legarda was delivering her speech on the need to sustain traditional textiles in Southeast Asia, Pimentel took the floor to move for adjournment.  This prompted Senator Panfilo Lacson to manifest that if somebody would question the lack of quorum again in the coming days, he would invoke Section 99 of the Senate rules which authorizes “the President or presiding officer to order the sergeant-at-arms to require the appearance of the absent members or, if it is deemed necessary, to order their arrest so as to form the necessary quorum.”

  And true enough, when Pimentel again called for adjournment Tuesday for lack of quorum, Senator Jamby Madrigal asked the presiding officer to order the sergeant-at-arms to forcibly bring the no-show senators, whether majority or minority to the session hall. She singled out Manuel Villar and the two Cayetanos (Alan Peter and Pia) among those to be bodily taken to the hall.

When Pia reappeared, she quickly took the floor and blasted at Jamby for her motion which made it appear that she and her brother were remiss in their duties. She explained the motion for her arrest was totally reckless and unfair because she had just come from a hearing on the high incidence of work-related deaths in the Subic shipyard project of Hanjin Heavy Industries. She said Alan took a day off because he was taking care of their sick mother at a hospital. Unknown to Pia, Jamby had already withdrawn her motion when she was advised that it was unnecessary.

  After the ugly incident, Lacson came to Pia’s defense in a radio interview. He said the truth of the matter is that Pia and Pimentel are usually the only senators left in the row of chairs reserved for opposition members during the daily session.  He confirmed Jamby’s observation that Villar has been a now-you-see, now-you-don’t member since his ouster as Senate president last November. He said Villar would be around during the roll call and then vanish afterwards.  Villar has also refrained from participating or even saying a word during the sessions.

  Pimentel believes that the presence of 13 senators should constitute a quorum, contrary to the majority bloc’s view that 12 members are enough. To settle the conflict once and for all, the minority leader intends to bring it to the Supreme Court.

f_maragay@yahoo.com