by Myrna Velasco May 23, 2016
(updated)
The Department of Energy (DOE) has
been batting for criminal liability being meted against individuals and
entities intentionally planting trees underneath or within the areas traversed
by transmission facilities.
Nevertheless, this is a policy that
has not been pushed into law by the Aquino regime, hence it will lodge to the
attention of the incoming administration.
Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada
said this will be among the policy recommendations they will refer to the
incoming leadership at the department.
She noted that the DOE is “lobbying
for the passage of a binding law to prohibit any activities comprising the
integrity of the grid regarding the obstructions beneath the transmission
facilities,” such as vegetation and setting up of structures.
“This will form part of the
recommendations of the DOE… to criminalize intentional tree-planting activities
underneath these transmission assets,” she stressed.
The plan will be to lodge a bill for
discussion and eventual action of the 17th Congress. The energy department will
take the lead in collaboration with transmission firm-concessionaire National
Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
Just last week, NGCP reported another
case of right-of-way obstruction at its 69-kilovolt Sta Rita-Quinapondan
transmission line project in Samar. The company noted that work stopped due to
“uncooperative landowners.”
As designed, the project has been
intended to “improve power reliability and quality in Western and Eastern
Samar.”
NGCP indicated that it “complied
with all the requirements of the court, so that we can lawfully proceed with
the project.”
But it claimed that there had been
“open defiance of the writ of possession” by the landowners, hence, frustrating
“our efforts to provide better transmission services to the people of Samar.”
ROW hurdles have been a recurrent
dilemma for NGCP, hence, it wants more stringent measures to prevent such
activities from affecting its operations.
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