SCUTTLEBUTT

Barking up the wrong tree

An official of the country’s premiere maritime school, the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA), has blundered in playing out a “sinister plan” to sue his subordinates for the allegedly questionable acquisition of a multi-million peso merchant vessel simulator.

According to the Tarsee Vine, the PMMA official was reprimanded by the Office of the Ombudsman prosecutors for “orchestrating” charges against a PMMA dean and a department cashier for the purchase of a P47-million Chinese-made simulator.

The simulator was blamed for the PMMA’s failure to pass an audit of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in 2022 before the body’s auditors and officials of the Maritime Industry Authority.

“PMMA failed the EMSA Audit because the simulator failed. What the high-ranking official did was to file a complaint with the Ombudsman. In the preliminary proceedings last week, the Ombudsman ignored the complaint for the simple reason that the supplier should have been charged and not the members of the academe,” a nosey Tarsee said.

However, the official could not sue the Chinese supplier because the contract was sponsored by a close ally of the executive, the informer said.

“To evade questions on the simulator, the official searched for a scapegoat. So, it is most likely that the complaint is headed to the dustbin. If I were in his shoes, I would just face the cases against me in the Ombudsman,” the informant said.

Indigenous geniuses

The primary mover behind the Razon-led Malampaya project is confident of meeting its delicately adjusted timetable for the natural gas field to continue delivering fuel to keep 30 percent of Luzon lighted.

Malampaya operator Prime Energy Resources Development B.V. maintains it has the best people who can undertake the job led by an advisory council composed of the best minds in the energy sector.

Among the members of the council are Cesar Buenaventura, the first Filipino president of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp; Jose Ibazeta, Prime Metro Power director and industry leader who served as Power Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. president and chief executive from 2007 to 2010 and acting Secretary of the Department of Energy; and Rufino Bomasang, former Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. president and chief executive — a veteran in the indigenous energy field.

Industry analysts say Prime Energy is also backed by technical experts and specialist contractors from around the globe, and that it is well-equipped to plan and execute viable projects to extract more gas from reservoirs in the Service Contract 38 Area.

Prime Energy’s stated ultimate goal is to make indigenous fuel the main source of energy for the country. Such an aspiration may get a huge government lift if Senate Bill 2247, or the proposed Philippine Downstream Gas Industry Development Act, is passed into law.

The bill seeks to fill gaps in developing natural gas resources beyond the Malampaya field. The bill would make it state policy to buy Filipino gas first, which will unlock and open the doors to a wave of investments.