A top official of the National Unity Party (NUP) has declared that no legal or constitutional obstacles exist in Malacanang’s plan to use the Malampaya Fund to help the government  ward off a looming energy crisis in 2015.

Dasmarinas City Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., the NUP’s vice president for external affairs, pointed out that Presidential Decree 910 clearly provides that proceeds from the Malampaya gas project can be used for “energy-related” purposes upon the President’s orders.

“As it stands now legally, if the Malampaya funds shall be used for exploration, development and exploitation of energy resources, the President can legally do so pursuant to P.D. 910,” said Barzaga, who is also a vice chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments.

“Under the last paragraph of Section 8 of P.D. 910, all funds including government share representing royalties, rentals, production share on exploration, development and exploitation of energy resources, shall form part of the Special Fund to be used to finance energy resource development and exploitation programs and projects of the government and ‘for such other purposes as may be hereafter directed by the President,” said Barzaga.

He said the only time when the concurrence of the Congress is needed in allowing the President to use the Malampaya funds is when these would be used for purposes other than the exploration, development and exploitation of energy resources.

Rep. Rodel Batocabe of AKO-Bicol, a partylist ally of the NUP under the Coalition for Peace and Development, said he was agreeable to the plan of tapping the Malampaya fund to deal with the impending power shortage, if it would spare consumers from paying higher electricity rates next year.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has earlier assured the President that the House of Representatives would grant him the special powers he has requested to help stave off a projected energy shortfall next year.

 “The approval will be done as soon as we reconvene. We must avoid even occasional and short-duration brownouts,” said Belmonte, the honorary chairperson of the NUP.

The House has up to Oct. 31—when its members go on a short recess—to approve the joint resolution allowing the President to exercise special powers under Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to resolve the projected power shortage next year.

Belmonte and other House leaders have eyed the use of the Malampaya Fund to finance the government’s purchase of additional generating capacity of up to 300 megawatts, which Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla estimates would cost some P6 billion.

Estimates show that an unresolved power shortage in the summer of 2015 would translate to some P81.6 billion in income losses for Luzon.

Petilla has warned that the energy shortfall could lead to power outages lasting up to three months in Luzon under a worst-case scenario.