Bill filed to classify power projects of national significance

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian is mulling a bill aimed to fast-track the processing of critical power projects – an issue raised by power developers for a long time – in order to meet the country’s growing power requirements.

A bill will be refiled that will classify energy projects as projects of national significance, said Gatchalian, chairman of Senate committee on energy.

The bill aims to give priority to certain power projects, compelling permit-giving government agencies to work within a specific timeframe.

“A concrete example is permitting. [Under the bill, we will] give specific timeframe to cut the requirements of permits. So from day one, we know the timeframe to get certain permits. This will put pressure LGUs (local government units) to move,” Gatchalian said.

To support this endeavor, the bill will also put up a one-stop shop for energy-related projects to cut redundancy in filing documentary requirements.

The lawmaker said developers usually deal with several agencies that require the same permits, lengthening the process before a project takes off.

“Permitting becomes redundant. This needs a legislative measure because we’re talking of multiple departments…So what we want is to really come up with a sort of one-stop shop so developers will only talk to one,” Gatchalian said.

However, the bill will not push for more incentives since there are already existing laws that mandate it.

“I don’t favor more incentives, what we want is only procedural. We already have a lot of incentive-giving laws. So we will just concentrate on procedural,” Gatchalian said.

“In permitting alone, we can transform the power sector,” the lawmaker said.