The House of Representatives has approved on third reading House Bill No. 8147 (Energy Virtual One-Stop-Shop Bill) or the EVOSS bill.
“The Philippines, under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, aims to become a high middle income economy by 2022,” Rep. Lord Allan Velasco said.
“The expected increase in economic activity entails an increase in energy demand. As such, it is important to attract power generation developers, as well as fast-track the construction of power plants,” Velasco added.
The legislator, however, observed that it takes hundreds of signatures and dozens of permits from different government offices for energy resource investors who want to put up power plants.
The lawmaker noted that this discourages many power generation companies to invest in the Philippines.
“Competition would attract more power generation companies to invest in the country.”
As chairperson of the House Committee on Energy and co-author of the bill, Velasco worked for passage of the EVOSS bill with the aim of addressing the situation.
“We want to streamline the lengthy permitting process and reduce the cost of doing business for generation companies,” Velasco said.
“We want to streamline the lengthy permitting process and reduce the cost of doing business for generation companies.”
“Competition would attract more power generation companies to invest in the country, and would indirectly reduce generation charges as a result of reduced cost of business.”
The legislator said he expects the bill to be passed into law soon for the benefit of Filipino electricity consumers nationwide.
