CITING the P6-billion unused income from the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) due to red tape, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian moved over the weekend to tap the idle funds for rural electrification, development and livelihood, rehabilitation of watersheds, as well as environmental enhancement projects.
Gatchalian, who sits as cochairman of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC), is set to ask Congress to amend the Epira’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) when lawmakers reconvene regular sessions next week (May 20).
The senator indicated that the remedial legislation is expected to address “the need to amend the IRR concerning benefits to host communities of the Epira law, to empower and to speedily give host communities the benefits mandated by law, but also to promote harmony and cooperation among the LGUs, residents and generation companies or energy-resource developers.”
Gatchalian pointed out that the total fund that could be tapped to benefit host communities in the entire country added up to P12 billion. He noted that as of August of last year, “only P6 billion has either been utilized or allocated for use because of red tape.”
The senator lamented, however, that these funds take years to trickle down to host communities because of the current procedure in the Epira IRR.
He noted, for instance, that under the present setup, “generation companies will remit the funds to the DOE, which in turn will release the fund to host communities that will implement the projects subject to submission of various documentary requirements.”
In a statement, Gatchalian reported that the JCPC had given the go-ahead to the amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of the Epira “in order for communities to feel the benefits of hosting power-generation facilities as quickly as possible.”
He recalled that at the last JCPC hearing for the 17th Congress, both the Senate and House panel members sitting in the Commission approved Department of Energy Circulars 2018-03-005 and 2018-08-0021, which seek to include indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples in the list of host communities, and “fast-track the release and use of the funds to host communities.”
Gatchalian also made it clear that Department Circular (DC) 2018-08-0021 “removes DOE from the picture and allows the generation companies to directly remit the funds to the host communities.”
On the other hand, he added, DC 2018-03-005 “expands the benefits to indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples who were previously not included as beneficiaries.”
He expects these twin department circulars to eliminate the red tape that complicates the process of giving the funds to the host communities. “On behalf of the Senate, after reviewing thoroughly the proposals of the Department of Energy, we definitely want to empower and to give the benefits as quickly as possible to the LGUs,” the senator stressed.
Image credits: wingatchalian.com