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Erc Essay

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It can be said that ERC’s independence is formally shielded under its enabling law from potential undue infuence from any government body that exercises authority over it. As earlier discussed, the ERC is 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 betweeen 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 have the same authority …show more content…

Therefter, the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Philippine Congress, and which is predominantly dominated by the coalition of the ruling party, likewise threatened to abolish the ERC allegedly due to corruption amoung its officials. The threat was not carried out, but the House of Representatives only granted the ERC a budget equivalent to PhP 1,000 or CAD 30. After much deliberation and following the bicameral conference between the House of Representatives and the Philippine Senate, the budget of the ERC was restored 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 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 threatened no less than by the President (who has the appointing power) and from the Philippine House of Representatives (which has power over its budget). In other words, while the legislation is clear that the

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