Power, smuggling issues top industries’ concerns
Businessmen belonging to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) have asked the government to address concerns on power supply, smuggling and other issues affecting industries across the country.
The PCCI presented its recommendations through resolutions that were submitted to President Aquino at the close of the 38th Philippine Business Conference and Expo.
PCCI president Miguel B. Varela, in an interview, highlighted the resolutions on power, agriculture and services as these had impact on both the short-term and long-term needs of many industries.
The resolutions were packaged into sections, namely Asean; agriculture; education; energy, power and water; environment; housing and construction; information and communications technology; industry; mining; SME development; strong peso; taxation; and transportation and logistics.
Noting that the power crisis is really just the effect of the bottlenecks in the processes and the investment environment in this sector, businessmen pushed for measures that could encourage competition and new projects.
The PCCI supported current efforts of the Department of Energy to increase and fast-track petroleum and gas exploration, work closely with the Mindanao Development Authority and other stakeholders to create the Mindanao Power Monitoring Commission, and coordinate with the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Finance (DOF) to develop a road map for improving competitiveness and investment.
The resolution also urged the DOE to seriously consider establishing a National Demand and Supply Aggregator Agency “in order to create true competition and generation adequacy, induce competitive tariff rates and efficient supply contracting.”
“For the purpose of presenting recommendations to the President we didn’t want the message to be garbled. We felt it was best to give simple but strategic resolutions. Establishing the Mindanao Power Monitoring Commission, for example, will pave the way for more specific suggestions. We will submit (to the Office of the President) annexes containing more specific recommendations,” PCCI vice president for Mindanao Ricardo Juliano Jr. said in a phone interview.
One of the “specifics” being pushed for Mindanao is the quick resolution of the ownership of the 102-megawatt (MW) Iligan diesel power plant, which is under the Commission on Audit’s review. “That is one of the issues that need a short-term timetable. We will make specific recommendations that are measurable and can be followed up. The resolutions will be passed this October during the annual Philippine Business Conference,” Juliano said.
Experts from National Transmission Corp. earlier said the Mindanao power crisis that resulted in frequent outages during the summer months was expected to continue until 2015 because of the lack of new baseload plants. Demand for electricity in Mindanao, especially during peak hours of the day, far exceeds available supply, according to experts. Peak demand this year has reached 1,515 megawatts. During summer, the shortfall is seen to reach an average of 200 megawatts, which is equivalent to the capacity of one medium-sized baseload power plant.
Business leaders have noted that several power projects in Mindanao have been approved by the Department of Energy but none has started, apparently due to opposition or red tape in the offices of host local governments.
The business group’s resolution calling for the adoption of anti-smuggling measures took up the bulk of the section on industry.
