SENATE President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon on Friday urged Congress to strive for stronger safeguards that will stop the government from entering into onerous contracts at the expense of the people.
Drilon is the author of Senate Bill No. 11, or the Transportation Crisis Act of 2016, which seeks to grant President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers to deal with the transportation crisis in Metro Manila and other urban areas.
Drilon said that while he fully supported the passage of the bill, “it is also of the highest importance that the bill will provide safeguards that can adequately protect the system and the people from abuses.”
He said Congress should take a careful look at its previous bad experiences, citing the Electric Power Crisis Act of 1993.
“We must learn from the experiences with the Electric Power Crisis Act of 1993, which was crafted to address the power crisis but, in the end, resulted in the execution of onerous contracts with independent power producers that led to expensive and higher electricity rates,” Drilon said. Macon Ramos-Araneta
“We must avoid making the same mistakes all over again. We should strive for the highest standards of transparency and accountability in crafting the bill.”
Drilon said a no-bidding policy or a negotiated procurement must only be employed “as a last resort” when all other alternative methods of procurement had already been exhausted.