The Joint Congressional Power Commission has given the go signal for the amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act Law to ensure that communities hosting power generation facilities receive the benefits due them.
During the last JCPC hearing for the 17th Congress, both panels of the Senate and the House of Representative approved two Department of Energy circulars that aim to include indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples in the list of host communities and hasten the release and use of the funds to host communities, respectively.
JCPC co-chairman Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said amending the IRR will empower host communities as well as promote harmony and cooperation among the local government units, residents, and generation companies or energy-resource developers.
“As we speak right now, the total fund for benefits for host communities in the entire country is P12 billion. As of August of last year, only P6 billion has either been utilized or allocated for use because of red tape,” said Gatchalian.
The senator said the fund can be used for rural electrification, development and livelihood, rehabilitation of watershed management, health, and environmental enhancement projects.
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.
The lawmaker said Department Circular 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, DC 2018-03-005 expands the benefits to indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples who were previously not included as beneficiaries.
“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 said.