IN what appears to be another glaring display of influence, the modern-day crony by the name of Dennis Uy found a knight in shining armor in no less than Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi coming to his rescue amid allegations of fraud surrounding his acquisition of Malampaya gas field’s controlling stakes from two giant oil companies.
Cusi particularly defended Uy, as the former denied irregularities behind the Department of Energy’s (DOE) review of Uy’s acquisition of a Chevron subsidiary with a 45-percent stake in the Malampaya gas field.
Cusi insisted that whatever transaction took place between Uy’s Udenna Corporation and that of Chevron is something beyond their ambit. It’s private, says the Energy Secretary who admitted that there’s not much he can do about it.
As if keeping his hands off the deal isn’t enough, the top energy official said that the transaction is not a midnight deal, and that the DOE need not look into the Udenna-Chevron deal.
From how it looks, Cusi bent rules just to accommodate a crony of his appointing authority.
Interestingly, there are some points to ponder — the talks on extending Service Contract (SC) No. 38 or the Malampaya gas-to-power project supposedly moved “faster” after Uy’s entry into the consortium.
With the Udenna-Chevron transaction deemed as a “done deal,” Uy has evolved from being a smart investor into a tycoon of sorts as he now lords over the Malampaya gas field project with a whopping 90 percent operating interest in SC 38. The Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation holds the remaining 10 percent.
Whatever review that was conducted is more like just a formality designed to legitimize a fraudulent deal, effectively making the people of Luzon a virtual hostage while living at the mercy of another crony.
By insisting the transaction was purely a private matter, Cusi must have forgotten that the deal involved a public utility that was developed using public funds formed from the taxes we pay.