On LPG hoarding, “shortage” & Angie Reyes asking for police power (that’s not police power)

(The Flame of a Gas Stove is Ignited in Bremen, Germany. Photographer not indicated. Right-clicked from www.allposters.com used here for educational and non-commercial purposes under terms of use of free blog use of said site.)

 In view of the  unexplained and unexplainable LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) shortage, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes in the congressional hearings asked Congress for “police power” in order to address the problem.

I wonder what he meant by that.

Police power is the authority of the State to limit individual liberties (or those guaranteed in the Bill of Rights) for public safety, public welfare, and what others call public morals; usually through laws and ordinances.

In other words, it has a technical meaning.

Examples are laws prohibiting gambling (which may be legal in some countries), laws prohibiting prostitution (which may be legal in certain jurisdictions), laws prohibiting use and possession of marijuana (which may be legal in some territories, or as prescribed by physicians), laws prohibiting abortion, etc. etc.

Why do they limit individual liberties? When you gamble, you’re spending your own money (right to use property) but the State can stop you, regulate/ prohibit it; when you’re prostituting or engaging such services, you’re using your body but the State can illegalize it so you’d go to jail for it; when you’re smoking pot, you’re inhaling it into your lungs (oh… others nearby can smell the smoke and children who see you might be influenced, etc.), anyway, it’s your lungs, blood stream, and brain cells, but the State can criminalize it (legislative).

In other words, police power is generally legislative in character; exercised by the legislative bodies, and refers to those laws as explained above.

What the Energy Secretary probably meant when he asked for police power is what most people think of when they refer to what police officers do when they make arrests, searches, seizures. That’s not police power. It’s called law enforcement. You don’t need more legislative enactment for that, all the references you need are the Rules of Court and criminal statutes.

The Energy Secretary can on conditions of a valid search, conduct raids of all LPG dealers or the oil cartel in order to arrest the artificial shortage, he can strike fear in the hearts of the greedy and the hoarders in order to avert a full-blown crisis. All he has to do is ask his lawyers how to go about it (i will not give the procedure here); he has to do it as a campaign, not piecemeal; he has to have all the legal bases covered; he has to be swift and discreet.

It’s called: Doing your job. But in this government, no one is doing their job, no one is enforcing the laws, it’s a field day for crooks, fixers, the greedy and the incompetent.

Or the can Energy Secretary can always say: If you run out of LPG, use your microwave oven!