Callaghan: Kumoi has good ideas but …

The Governor’s Office said former senator Ramon “Kumoi” Guerrero’s pronouncement that the government is staging blackouts to justify privatization is “extremely misleading,” casting doubts on his real agenda, press secretary Peter A. Callaghan said yesterday.

“I think some of his statements before the Legislature were extremely misleading and he [Kumoi] knows better than that. I don’t know why he would say something like the government staging power blackouts when he knows full well that engines are down. He knows that. That’s the real problem,” said Callaghan.

He said that Guerrero must have an agenda.

“It indicates that he’s in for a political or personal mission,” he said.

He said Gov. Juan N. Babauta took Guerrero in as consultant “because he has some good ideas.”

Asked if Babauta has regrets now, Callaghan said, “I don’t know. Actually I don’t think so because Kumoi has some good ideas and he helped the governor at a time when the governor needed help at CUC.”

He said it was Guerrero’s recommendation that Power Plant II be rehabilitated to supplement Power Plant 1 generation.

Guerrero has fixed three of the six engines at the standby power plant.

“He is somebody who knows but it doesn’t mean that the governor would agree with all his recommendations, but the recommendation to revitalize PP2 is a good one. It is helping us through this current crisis at PP1,” he said.

He said load shedding could have been worse if PP2 were not rehabilitated.

Guerrero entered into a contract with CUC last May to revive PP2 and review the PP1 privatization report by Harris Group at $7,000 a month.

He began his work middle of May till July.

His consultancy contract, which came shortly after the governor’s declaration of state of emergency, drew heavy criticisms from the opposition.

Hinting of possible political favor, the House leadership then cited that Guerrero had also entered into a $50,000 engineering consultancy work with the Governor’s Office for La Fiesta power generation facility.

Meantime, Guerrero said that his report was done “objectively.”

Asked of his political affiliation now, Guerrero said, “you’ll know soon who I will support.”

Guerrero was an opposition senator, belonging to Reform Party, during the 13th Legislature.

He ran for re-election but lost in the 2003 midterm election.