A militant lawmaker on Friday sought an investigation into the massive cancellation of flights by budget airline Cebu Pacific that is owned by the Gokongwei family.
Rep. Carlos Zarate at the same time pushed for the passage of the proposed Passengers Bill of Rights which is currently pending in Congress even as he lamented the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of the flights suffered by thousands of travellers, tourists and especially overseas Filipino workers.
“An investigation must be launched to the airline delays and cancellations especially since we have received reports that Cebu Pacific has long been over extending their aircraft usage per day that even the maintenance window is being sacrificed,” Zarate said.
Zarate also slammed the practice of Cebu Pacific of flying to more destinations without expanding its fleet of aircraft and hiring more pilots.
“We have also received reports that Cebu Pacific flight cancellations is due to union busting moves of the management to harass and fire their organized workers,” Zarate added.
Zarate’s group filed the Air Passengers Bill of Rights in the past Congresses, up to the present 17th Congress.
The bill provides that air passengers shall be protected and compensated with P10,000 when airline delays and cancellations occur.
“We are calling on House leaders to fast-track House Bill 6191 and call a motu propio oversight hearing on this issue,” Zarate said, hoping that the House leadership under Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be able prioritize the bill’s passage before the 17th Congress ended on June 30.
Meanwhile, Zarate urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure that the rights of electric consumers are not violated.
He also asked the agency to investigate the simultaneous shutdown of several power plants that have resulted in blackouts in some areas, particularly Metro Manila.
“As regulators, the primodial role of ERC is to see that the interests of the consumers are always protected,” said Zarate.
At the same time, Zarate asked the power regulator to review the contracts between power generation companies and electric distributors to ensure that the interests of consumers are upheld in the power deals.
During the hearing of the bilateral Joint Congressional Power Commission last week, ERC Commissioner Catherine Maceda told legislators generation companies that went over the stipulated power outage allowances in their contracts would be penalized.
“Gencos and distribution utilities have an agreement as to how much outage allowance is allowed…We need to be respectful of the contracts entered into by the parties,” Maceda was quoted as saying.
In response, Zarate said the ERC should be pro-active in ensuring that the generation companies abide by the terms of their authorities to operate from the government, instead of being passive in its role.
Last month, the Luzon grid suffered a 2,200-megawatt drop in power output, leading to rotational brownouts. This accumulated drop-off resulted from both scheduled shutdowns from power plants (worth 800 MW) and forced and unscheduled shutdowns (1,400 MW).