Prancing hypocrite

Who’s this diplomat who feigns having a blue blood?

A government official got a good shock when a member of a Philippine mission in Europe said that legislators are better off hobnobbing with royalties and dignitaries instead of mingling with overseas Filipino workers.

The official who is supposed to represent the good traits of Filipinos are turning off a lot of people but unfortunately the backers for this fake peacock abounds both in the executive branch and in Congress.

Electrifying twist

The House public hearing on the Meralco petition for an early grant of a franchise recently turned into a venue for a legal clash between two giants that has been going on for some years now.

The House panel received a letter, from a law firm representing a major bank.

According to the letter, the bank applied for an electricity connection for a development project on the site of its headquarters in Makati City.

One of the buildings is a high-rise tower while the other is an annex building with a total area of 11,492 square meters. Construction should have started in 2022 and completed by 2028.

The dispute involves the area of a substation needed for the bank expansion which the power firm committed to provided that the bank identify a place where to put up the facility.

The argument reached the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) which ruled in 2022 directing Meralco to act on the application for an electric connection.

Meralco officials then told the House panel that the power connection to the bank project would require “several hundreds of megawatts” that can only be supplied through the setting up of a new substation but “the problem is there is no such available space already” in the Makati central business district.

They said negotiations with BDO revolved around the land needed to house the new substation since Meralco will shoulder costs for equipment and take care of everything “except the land.”

If Meralco absorbed the cost of land in connecting big users to new supply, “all our costs” would go up.

Among the proposals made by Meralco to BDO, in this case, was to integrate the substation in the bank’s “proposed vertical development” or build the facility underground.

BDO, however, expressed reservations due to safety concerns, the Meralco officials said at the hearing.

The 2022 ERC resolution on the case described the demand for land to place the new substation as “an excessive and unreasonable requirement for an electricity consumer to comply with.”

SAFeguarding the Chinese

Two male Special Action Force (SAF) members of the elite unit of the Philippine National Police were recently arrested for alarm and scandal after engaging in a fistfight in an expensive subdivision in Muntinlupa City.

According to a post by the Philippines Defense Forces forum, the two active SAF members were supposed to be performing duties in Zamboanga City, as this was where their assignment was, but were serving as bodyguards for an unnamed POGO-involved Chinese national, along with seven other SAF troopers.

Of the two SAF members, one was said to be assigned to the 52nd Special Action Company in Zamboanga and one to the 55th Special Action Company in Zamboanga, under the 5th Special Action Battalion.

The fistfight left one SAF member with head injuries.

As the PNP investigation rolls, it was discovered that the arrested SAF members were ordered by their battalion commander in Zamboanga City to ensure the security of this John Doe Chinese national.

Each of them received a monthly pay of P40,000, of which P20,000 would go to their battalion commander’s pockets.

Administrative charges will be filed against SAF members, along with their battalion and company commanders involved in this monkey business due to neglect of duty and misconduct.

Based on the latest updates, the two SAF members arrested were unable to present written mission orders to support their claims.