Last Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, during the 46th Annual General Membership Assembly, several critics of the Emergency Power Supply Agreement (EPSA) tried to engineer the ouster of the entire FICELCO Board of Directors.
Three of them took turns at the microphone to question the quorum, among other things, and one read a petition reportedly signed by 500 member-consumer-owners calling for the passage of two resolutions.
The first one sought the immediate resignation of all directors for the board’s alleged failure to protect the rights and welfare of consumers while the other urged the creation of an adhoc committee composed of qualified MCOs to assume its functions, engage an independent auditor to conduct a forensic review of the EPSA and related BOD resolutions, coordinate with NEA and ERC to restore the subsidy, and ensure full transparency in all power supply procurements.
Unfortunately, only a handful of the several hundred MCOs physically present at the CatSU gymnasium stood up to vote for the measures, with their proponents retreating but gracious in defeat.
The only other option is to petition the NEA to conduct an investigation into their allegations and hope that the administrator decides to suspend, remove or replace any or all directors of the cooperative, which as of 2024 was rated “AAA” in overall performance assessment.
Failing this, they would have to wait until January 2026 to unseat the directors during the district elections.
Incidentally, the BOD’s critics has given citizens angered by the flood control projects controversy something to look forward to: the removal or resignation of senators or representatives implicated as having received commissions from contractors engaged in budget insertions.
Unlike elective local officials, members of the Senate and House of Representatives cannot be unseated through a recall election.
While Section 16 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution allows both houses to punish its members for disorderly behavior by suspending or expelling them, it will be too much to expect the august bodies, where backscratching is the norm and honor among thieves is observed, to do harm against its own honorable members.
As the Filipino people may have realized by now, any disorderly behavior or disagreeable conduct in the Senate or the House of Representatives is often done behind closed doors or under the table, so to speak.
The only recourse for the voters is for the Ombudsman to “investigate on its own, or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of any public official, employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper, or inefficient.”
In 2022, the graft prosecution body set a precedent, finding Lapu-Lapu City Rep. Paz Radaza, along with five other officials, guilty of three counts of graft and malversation of public funds.
Of course, Radaza’s counsels filed an appeal with the Supreme Court and the embattled solon finished her term.
Fortunately for her constituents, she finished a distant second when she ran for mayor in 2025.
Like Radaza, any senator or congressman tainted by the flood control scam could suffer her fate as long as the Ombudsman secures evidence of their complicity with the contractors and the DPWH officials.
Aside from this, anyone can seek the removal of a legislator, through a separate complaint with the Ombudsman for violation of Section 14 of the Philippine Constitution.
Said provision of the Constitution, which prohibits any Senator or House member from appearing as counsel before any court of justice, also states that “(N)either shall he, directly or indirectly, be interested financially in any contract with, or in any franchise or special privilege granted by the Government, or any subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including any government-owned or controlled corporation, or its subsidiary, during his term of office.”
According to Sen. Ping Lacson, at least 67 congressmen served as contractors for their own government-funded infrastructure projects, probably including our very own Catanduanes Rep. Eulogio R. Rodriguez, whose family owns and operates ERR Construction Corporation.
With many of the current crop of senators and congress representatives with family members or relatives as contractors of the very same projects the legislators identified in the national budget, most, if not all, could be subject to removal.
Even if these supposedly honorable gentlemen and ladies survive until the end of their term like Radaza, the stigma of unjust enrichment while in office might still be enough for incensed Filipinos to kick them out with glee in 2028.