Granting of special powers can’t be rushed — Drilon

Sen. Franklin Drilon delivers his speech at the Wallace Business Forum in 2013. Photo by Joseph Vidal/PRIB via Drilon’s Facebook page.

MANILA — Senator Franklin Drilon recently said Malacañang should not be expecting a rush approval of their request to grant the president an authorization to establish additional power generating capacity.

Drilon said that they have received a “broadly worded” letter from Malacañang requesting for a joint resolution.

He also added that the letter has no attachment of the draft of the measure that needs approval.

Given this, Drilon said the senate do not have any idea on the pertinent details of the measures including the limits of the authority being proposed.

“On the timetable, it is impossible to have it by the end of September. That is impossible because we don’t even have the draft joint resolution. We don’t know the parameters of the authority being requested. We know the urgency, but we can’t rush into this,” Drilon told reporters.

He also added that the Senate will be working as fast as it could to finish reviewing the said request.

This is despite the fact that the senators could not promise to make an approval by the end of the month.

He also said that there is still a need to hold a hearing and that the Congress is up for a three-week break the week after the next.

“Given all the complicated issues, we cannot rush into this but we know the urgency. We will work on this,” he said.