Aquino rejects Energy chief Petilla's resignation

(Updated 4:42 p.m.) President Benigno Aquino III has rejected the resignation of Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, who tendered his resignation after failing to reach his target of restoring power in all towns devastated by Typhoon Yolanda by Christmas Eve.

Aquino arrived at the decision after a meeting with Petilla on Thursday afternoon, according to the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson in a statement.

“The President did not accept the resignation, cognizant of the fact that according to original estimates, it would take 3-6 months to restore power in town centers, considering the extent of the damage caused by Supertyphoon Yolanda: the Luzon-Visayas connection was down, the major geothermal plant in Leyte was also down; and generation, transmission and distribution lines were down," the statement read.

The meeting came a day after GMA News Online reported that Petilla intends to resign in the wake of his failure to reach his target of restoring power in all towns devastated by Typhoon Yolanda by Christmas Eve, as he had vowed in a press conference last Nov. 19.

By Christmas Day, there were at least two more towns where the Department of Energy had yet to bring back electricity, more than six weeks after Yolanda pummeled much of the Eastern Visayas and cut a wide swathe of destruction across the central Philippines.



Honorable public servant

Malacañang said Petilla's accomplishments “speak for itself.”

Among them, it said, is restoring power in 40 days instead of the original target of six months, and energizing 317 out of 320 affected towns.
 
“By any measure this is excellent performance. The President noted that foreign observers who have seen work being done in the Visayas, and in comparison to disasters of lesser magnitude in other countries, pointed out that repair and rehabilitation of energy infrastructure was done faster,” it said.
 
“For all these reasons, the President, in rejecting Secretary Petilla’s offer to resign, reiterated that he has no intention of losing the services of an honorable public servant,” the Palace added.

From 2004 to 2012, Petilla served as governor of Leyte, one of the provinces hardest hit by Yolanda. Leyte's current governor, Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, is his younger brother. — KBK/YA/ELR, GMA News