New law sets P750-M emergency fund for electric cooperatives

Updated July 9, 2018, 10:57 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/07/09/new-law-sets-p750-m-emergency-fund-for-electric-cooperatives/

The newly signed law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte will earmark P750 million worth of ‘emergency fund’ that the electric cooperatives (ECs) can avail of to fast-track rehabilitation of damaged facilities or restoration of electricity services when walloped by natural disasters.

The Electric Cooperatives Emergency and Resiliency Fund (ECERF), as stipulated under Republic Act 11039, “shall be allocated exclusively for the restoration or rehabilitation of the EC’s damaged infrastructures after a fortuitous event or force majeure.”

It was further specified that “the amount shall not be used for the conversion of a calamity loan into a grant.”

The initial P750 million allocation to the fund shall be taken from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF), and shall be released to the National Electrification Administration’s (NEA) Quick Response Fund for eventual proper disposal to the qualified ECs.

And in case of a deficiency in the allotment, the NEA may “seek for the allocation of a supplementary budget from the NDRRMF, subject to the approval by the President of the Republic of the Philippines.”

The law similarly prescribes that the NEA shall submit quarterly reports on the implementation of the program and the utilization of the ECERF to the Department of Energy, Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) and the Office of the President.

The reports that ECs shall be submitting to NEA for them to have access to the ECERF fund, include those on Vulnerability and Risk Assessment, Resiliency Compliance Plan and Emergency Response Plan.

The law further noted that it intends “to provide an orderly and continuing means of financial assistance to electric cooperatives in carrying out their responsibility of providing reliable electric service necessary to alleviate the sufferings and damage brought about by a fortuitous event or force majeure.”

Senate Committee on Energy Chairman Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who is the measure’s principal author in the upper chamber, emphasized that with the law’s passage the ECs can now “quickly restore power in the homes and businesses of the 11 million customers they serve, without having to impose pass-on charges.”