Malacañang has ordered the creation of the Energy Investment Coordinating Council to draw up the guidelines for the declaration of “projects of national significance.”
The EICC, headed by the Energy Department, was directed to streamline regulatory processes for energy projects to speed up the provision of stable and affordable energy throughout the country.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi lauded the signing of Executive Order No. 30 on June 30 creating the EICC that would spearhead and coordinate national government efforts to harmonize, integrate and streamline regulatory processes, requirements and forms relevant to the development of energy investments in the country.
Cusi was pushing for a sound policy to ensure energy projects were carried out on time. Under the EO, the council will maintain a database of information and a web-based monitoring system for information exchange and updates to uphold transparency and accountability.
“The council will guide the various agencies in speeding up their regulatory processes for the fast realization of energy projects to be tagged as ‘projects of national significance’ under the Philippine Energy Plan,” Cusi said in a statement.
The EO states that energy projects of national significance needed to be endorsed by the department.
These projects should also have significant capital investment of at least P3.5 billion, significant contribution to economic development, significant consequential economic impact, significant contribution to the country’s balance of payments, significant impact on the environment, complex technical processes and engineering designs and significant infrastructure requirements.
“The longer the processing of energy projects gets, the more expensive it becomes, which could also impact on the delivery of energy services and their affordability,” Cusi said.
The EO provides that government agencies concerned with energy projects should presume other agencies were able to act upon and issue their respective permits within a 30-day period.
“Given that energy investors have complete requirements, cutting down the period of issuance of permits will certainly speed up the realization of energy projects,” he said.