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House split on bill clipping governor’s emergency powers
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Posted on May 27 2008
Members of the House of Representatives are closely divided on a bill clipping the governor’s powers to declare a state of disaster emergency.
The House, by a vote of 10-8, passed the bill on first and final reading on Friday despite some members’ strong reservations about the language of the bill.
Those who voted against the bill are Reps. Oscar Babauta, Frank Dela Cruz, Heinz Hofschneider, Ray Palacios, Justo Quitugua, Edward Salas, Edwin Aldan, and Tina Sablan. Reps. Rosemond Santos and Ralph Torres were absent.
Rep. Joseph James Camacho introduced the bill in the wake of the governor’s emergency declaration for the Commonwealth Ports Authority, which is facing technical default on its airport revenue bonds due to financial problems.
Camacho and other proponents of the bill said that the governor should not be able to use emergency powers to deal with financial hardship. They maintained that such powers should only be allowed in extreme cases such as an invasion, civil disturbance, natural disaster, or calamity.
They also argued that existing laws provide enough means for the government to deal with a financial crisis without the governor having to use emergency powers.
The lawmakers, according to Sablan, are concerned that the provision banning emergency declarations due to financial crisis or hardship “might be overly broad, and tie the hands of the Governor in situations when financial crisis could conceivably be a cause of true disaster situations.”
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. was offered as an example. She said: “If the financial insolvency of the agency were to cripple the agency’s ability to purchase fuel or treat wastewater and the community were to face imminent total blackouts islandwide, or sewage overflowing in the streets, would that not constitute a state of emergency brought on by financial hardship?”
The lawmakers asked that final passage of the bill be delayed until the language of the bill has been refined.
But Camacho, who is the floor leader, insisted that the bill needed to pass on first and final reading, and that amendments, if any, should be made at that moment.
