President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is considering making House Deputy Speaker and SAGIP partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta his Energy secretary to succeed Alfonso Cusi.
Atty. Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles, who was named as the next secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), said that Marcoleta, along with Roberto Tiglao, and Atty. Karen Jimeno are being considered for cabinet positions, but Marcos Jr. has yet to make a decision.
“We can confirm that those names are being talked about, but there are no decisions made yet,” Angeles said in the Laging Handa Public Briefing aired on Wednesday.
Marcoleta, who ran for senator under Marcos’s ticket, dropped out from the race just a few weeks before the elections last May 9.
In 2021, Marcoleta called for the early review of Republic Act 9209 or the current congressional franchise of the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), which still expires in 2028.
Marcoleta had accused MERALCO of nearly doubling its profits than what had been authorized while consumers were facing the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, saying that consumers have been overcharged in billions of pesos annually based on his office’s preliminary findings covering several years.
He had also asked the Commission on Audit to inspect MERALCO’s books to determine if there were significant gaps in the firm’s energy generation supply purchases, as reported to the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Marcoleta was also among the 70 congressmen believed to have voted against the renewal of broadcast giant ABS-CBN’s franchise, also in 2020.