Senate President Gonzales, Speaker Jose de Venecia, Senator Romulo, the Majority Floor Leader, Congressman Payumo, the distinguished members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, our co-workers in the cabinet and the rest of government, your excellencies, the leaders of the private sectors, ladies and gentlemen.

In keeping with time-honored practice, we mark here today the passage of several new laws in our land. Ordinarily, such an occasion does not require much ceremony; it is enough for the president to sign or not to sign into law what Congress has approved.

But when the new laws are of surpassing importance, it is fitting that the leaders of Congress and the Executive, within the sight of our people, should be on hand for their signing and promulgation.

Such is the case with Republic Act no. 7638– which creates a new Department of Energy in our government. The problems it seeks to address are felt by all and the clamor for relief is so urgent that the attention of the whole nation is on us here today.

In signing this bill into law, we set into motion the indispensable instrument that we need to effectively plan, implement, and operate a lasting answer to our energy problems, and thereby provide vital infrastructure for the development of our country.

I congratulate and thank the members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate for acting with probity and dispatch on this bill which the administration certified to congress as urgent. You have acted, ladies and gentlemen of the legislature, in a spirit of bipartisanship and devotion to the public interest that shows how the legislature and the executive can effectively work together. This is how it should always be in these times of challenge and hardship.

During the past five months, the government has spared no effort to put in place the policies, the projects and the programs that can squarely meet the severe energy crisis plaguing our country today.

With this act, and the mandated establishment of a new Department of Energy, we can now move double-time in our energy development program.

This act declares that it is the policy of the state:

First, to insure a continuous, adequate and economic supply of energy with the end in view of achieving self-reliance in the country’s energy requirements, and;

Second, to integrate and coordinate the various programs of the government towards self-sufficiency, and enhance productivity in power and energy without sacrificing ecological concerns.

The new department shall be headed by a secretary who shall sit with me in cabinet meetings and participate in all discussions that shall emphasize energy’s critical contribution to our progress as a nation. I intend to appoint Delfin Lazaro, a proven, respected and dedicated problem solver and manager as Secretary of the new Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy will apply strategic and long-range planning to our country’s total power and energy needs and resources.

Yet, while our hopes are raised by the passage of this act, let us not deceive ourselves about the power and energy problems we are facing. This law is no silver bullet that will immediately put an end to our current energy crisis.

We face a problem that has grown into a monster over time. The monster feeds on official carelessness and bureaucratic inefficiency. It has become a national menace because of poor long-range planning, misplaced sense of priorities, and a sad lack of managerial discipline and decisiveness — all of which are vital and necessary in complex energy projects.

It is as if we had forgotten the elementary lesson that energy is the fuel of economic activity and growth. We are now being forced to work out the basics of the solution.

These basics in our view are: deregulation, privatization, and the commitment to rechannel limited resources towards its solution.

With respect to deregulation, the new law provides for a phased program of deregulation. Within a short time, I therefore expect the new department to present to me a program and timetable for the deregulation of the different projects and activities of the energy industry.

With respect to privatization, I expect the department to come up with the necessary policy and program initiatives for the privatization of the government agencies or components thereof involved in energy.

And with respect to mobilizing resources for energy development, this administration will spare no effort to tap all available resources — both public and private — for the financing of power development projects.

Professionalization will mark all of our efforts to solve the energy crisis — permanently.

Let me say again, as I said in my meeting with the National Power Corporation officials and employees last Friday, that we will not waver in our program to reform and make more effective the national power corporation. There is already much to commend in what the present NPC board headed by Mr. Delfin Lazaro, and before him, Mr. Pablo Malixi, as to what they are doing to improve NAPOCOR’s administrative, financial and operational performance.

At the same time, however, we must accelerate the process of investigation and prosecution of erring officials. We have to rid the government of scalawags who bring down the institutions of government and who continue to cause much suffering and inconvenience to our people, because of graft and inefficiency.

I have ordered the central bank to help the National Power Corporation in tracking down those responsible for the scams that have caused NPC to lose millions of dollars in bogus foreign-exchange transactions.

As this law accelerates many activities in our energy development program, it also highlights the need for other administration-sponsored bills that are essential to the success of our power and energy development program.

I am happy that also enacted is the bill to pay in part, government’s subscription to the capital stock of NAPOCOR out of the oil price stabilization fund.

Other vital bills still in the legislative mill are the anti-pilferage bill, the energy conservation bill, the bill increasing the capitalization of the National Electrification Administration, and a host of other measures that will indicate our determination to address and solve our power and energy problems.

Gentlemen of the Senate and the House, we ask you therefore for your resolute support, even as now we thank you for the important pieces of legislation promulgated into law today. It Is most critical that we follow through. For our goal must be the permanent banishment of power outages in this country, and insure the growth of power generation well above our targets for economic growth.

Let me also stress that there are costs to borne for permanent relief from the energy crisis. The cost to all of us will be high. But the cost of doing nothing or not enough will be even higher.

We need the forbearance of all our people in meeting this crisis. We must all be ready to see this challenge through — rationally and clearly.

All these in turn will spell greater economic activity and socio-economic development in our country. As I have said before, so I will say again on this happy occasion, let us all join hands to move our country to attain 10 percent growth annually by 1998. As we continue to put our house in order, as we fully install all the infrastructure necessary for growth, and as we show the capacity of Filipino political will, talent and human resources to be put together for the national welfare, so will the nation move forward and upward.

Today, we also enact two other important measures — one, “An Act Amending Article 287 of Presidential Decree No. 442, as Amended, Otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines, by Providing for Retirement Pay to Qualified Private Sector Employees in the Absence of any Retirement Plan in the Establishment”, and equally important the legislative — executive development council bill which now puts the legislative and the executive together again as partners in national development planning. These two support strongly our programs for sustainable development for our beloved country.

In this season of good cheer — with Christmas and the New Year just around the corner — let us look beyond the dimness enforced by the current crisis of brownouts to the light and progress that is ours to achieve.

I do believe that with individual determination and our united resolve, present adversities will be overcome — and we shall reap the fruits of our cooperative efforts and collective will in the months and years ahead.

Again my congratulations and appreciation to congress for this exemplary act of bipartisanship.

Mabuhay kayong lahat, at sa buong sambayanang Pilipino, isang masaganang Pasko at maunlad at mapayapang Bagong Taon!!

Maraming salamat po.