House Special Sessions Pushed To Address Mindanao Power

Manila Bulletin
By RIO ROSE RIBAYA
April 4, 2012, 7:30pm


The eight-hour power outages that hound Mindanao prompted several lawmakers in the House of Representatives to call for special sessions during the break that would fast-track hearings on pending bills pushing for alternative sources of energy.


Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Te¬odoro “Teddy” Casiño urged Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad, chairperson of the Committee on Energy, to work overtime in hearing the One Mil¬lion Solar Roofs Act as well as other initiatives to address the Mindanao power crisis and looming shortage in Luzon.
“Instead of giving emergency pow¬ers to President (Benigno “Noynoy”) Aquino (III), we are urging the energy committee to hold hearings during the Congress break to tackle bills that will address the power crisis. This will get the ball rolling for renewable energy as the long term and sustain¬able solution to the power problem,” Casiño said.


The support for Casiño’s call began to snowball in Congress after he appealed to members from both majority and minority blocs. Sen. Miriam Santiago filed a similar bill, Senate Bill 2751, pushing for the use of solar roofs. House Majority Leader Neptali "Boyet" Gonzales agreed that "the immediate and short term solution lies in the hands of the Executive, and the Legislative" which he noted will take a lot of time.


"The Committee on Energy can always meet anytime during the break. All Committees are authorized to meet,” Gonzales said.


Meanwhile, House Deputy Minority Leader Marc Cagas explained that "before the adjournment, the Majority and Minority leaders were authorized in the plenary to conduct business and any other matters deemed necessary." "Now, there’s more reason that hearings should be conducted to help solve the Mindanao power crisis,” Cagas said.


Congress adjourned on March 24 to give way for the Lenten break. It will resume session on May 7. Casino, chairman of the Committee on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship, said Congress should immediately act on his bill providing incentives and financing facilities to ordinary electricity consumers like residences, offices and small to medium business establishments that want to put up their own solar power systems.