Chief Justice:
Let's elect transformational leaders
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who launched the Moral Force Movement–Negros Occidental Chapter at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos in Bacolod City yesterday afternoon, stressed the need to ensure the election of transformational leaders in 2010 and the restoration of moral values.

At a press conference at the Business Inn, Puno reiterated that the movement is apolitical and will not endorse candidates for the 2010 elections, but will define what are the characteristics of a transformational leader, and will leave it to the judgment of the people whom to chose.

“If it engaged in politics I would have no business whatsoever being in the Moral Force Movement being the chief magistrate of the land,” he said.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno yesterday said the allocation by the government of less than one percent of the national budget for the judiciary, which lacks judges and personnel, has greatly contributed to the slow administration of justice.

The lack of resources in the judiciary has been an age-old problem and he does not see a light at the end of the tunnel with the recent tragedy that has hit Metro Manila and Luzon and the scarcity of government funds, said Puno, who was in Bacolod City for the launching of the Moral Force Movement-Negros Occidental chapter.

Puno said the ratio of the number of judges to the country's ever-growing population and cases filed is so distorted.

The Social Action Center of the Bacolod diocese yesterday expressed its vehement opposition to the petition by state-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. to recover about P471 billion of the stranded debts of Napocor to be passed on to power consumers nationwide.

If granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission, this will translate to an average increase of 30 centavos per kilowatt-hour over a recovery period of 17 years, Fr. Aniceto Buenafe, SAC director, said in a press release.

This will be reflected in the universal charge portion of every consumer's electric bill, he said, citing Elinore Cabanilla, SAC representative to the ERC hearing on the petition, which was held in Cebu City on Oct. 8.