House panel to monitor CUC emergency

Vice Speaker and House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communications chair Timothy Villagomez said his panel will look closely at the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. emergency situation.

“I will call for a meeting of committee members next week to discuss this particular issue. We’ll be looking at it very closely,” said Villagomez yesterday.

Villagomez, a former CUC executive director during the term of former governor Pedro P. Tenorio, is particularly concerned about the state of emergency’s impact on the CUC board.

“There’s no functioning CUC board right now. They’re out,” he said. “Now I don’t think they should get any per diem if they meet.”

“Should the CUC director get paid, too?” asked Rep. Clyde Norita, noting that the emergency situation essentially transfers the authority to run the agency to Gov. Juan N. Babauta.

CUC officials, led by board chair Frank Q. Guerrero and executive director Lorraine A. Babauta earlier expressed their support to the governor’s decision to take over CUC’s operations to resolve the current power problem.

The governor, during his 2005 State of the Commonwealth Address on Thursday, said the emergency, stemming from the lack of a steady fuel supply, “threatens the welfare of everyone in the Commonwealth.”

He cited “an extreme, immediate, and imminent emergency” arising from the CUC’s failure to pay for fuel and the “almost zero” power reserves in the Commonwealth.

He said that the government continues to pay CUC what it owes—$650,000 a month—and is, in fact, ahead in its payment for three months. Yet, the CUC continues to fail to fix the power problem, he added.

Babauta said that, while it is easy to pass blame on the matter, he has the ultimate responsibility to take action “when the Commonwealth is threatened.”

“I find that this declaration is necessary to ensure the continued provision of power to critical CNMI public health and public safety facilities, the continued provision of electricity to our schools, homes, and workplaces, and the continued operation of our water and wastewater systems,” said Babauta.

During the emergency period, which will last for 30 days or a maximum of 90 days, the governor has the authority to take control of the agency—in operations and procurement, among others.