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EPIRA Essay

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It can be said that its enabling law, the EPIRA, formally shielded ERC’s independence from potential undue influence from any government body that exercises authority over it. As earlier discussed, the EPIRA created the ERC as an independent body that is not attached to, nor under the control or supervision of another government agency. The EPIRA does not likewise provide any formal coordination mechanism between the ERC and the DOE, the government agency that exercises supervision of the restructuring of the electric power industry. Thus, unlike in Ontario, where the OEB Act authorizes the Minister to issue directives on specified subjects to the OEB and requires the OEB to implement those directives, the DOE Secretary does not …show more content…

Thereafter, the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Philippine Congress, likewise threatened to abolish the ERC allegedly due to corruption among its officials. The House of Representatives is predominantly dominated by the coalition of the ruling party, the President’s party. The House of Representatives, however, eventually softened on its threat, but only granted the ERC a budget equivalent to PhP 1,000 or CAD 30. After much deliberation in the bicameral conference between the House of Representatives and the Philippine Senate, the Philippine Congress restored ERC’s budget to more manageable levels. Eventually, the Office of the President dismissed the Chairperson of the ERC for grave misconduct with respect to the procurement of audio-visual presentation project, and simple misconduct for renewing seven electric power purchase agreements and for appointing officers and personnel without the concurrence and approval of the rest of the commissioners (“Palace fires”, 2017). This recent experience only confirms that while the ERC’s independence as a quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative body is enshrined in its enabling legislation, this is not a guarantee that it will be independent of political processes. In this case, its independence as an institution was

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