DOE to approve areas where Solar Para sa Bayan may provide energy

The Department of Energy (DOE) will determine which areas Solar Para sa Bayan Corp. may provide electricity, according to amendments made the Senate Committees on Public Services and Energy on the proposed 25-year franchise of the company.

In Committee Report No. 659 submitted on February 7, the committees approved House Bill No. 8179 or “An Act Granting Solar Para sa Bayan Corp. a Franchise to Construct, Install, Establish, Operate and Maintain Distributable Power Technologies and Minigrid Systems throughout the Philippines to Improve Access to Sustainable Energy.”

But the Senate approved version carries amendments.

Solar Para sa Bayan is owned and operated by Leandro Leviste, the son of Senator Loren Legarda.

In December 2018, the House of Representatives approved House Bill 8179 on third and final reading.

Among the amendments introduced by the Senate committees is that the “DOE shall determine the remote and unviable, unserved, and underserved areas ...”

Renewable energy and rural electrification stakeholders criticized the proposed Solar Para sa Bayan franchise as paving the way for an industrial monopoly as the provisions of the proposed measure on which solar company may serve were vaguely defined.

In its committee report, the Senate committees put a Definition of Terms section which defined the terms “remote and unviable area,” “unserved area,” and “underserved area.”

Remote and unviable area share the description of a geographical area within the franchise area of a distribution utility where immediate extension of distribution line is not economically feasible due to the distance away from the nearest facility.

Unserved area, meanwhile, refers to a place with no access to electricity, no distribution system lines, no solar PV (photovoltaic) home systems, or no connection to any microgrid.

An underserved area is currently served by individual solar home systems, microgrids, or distribution utilities whose electricity services are less than 24 hours daily because of non-implementation of applied capital expense projects or non-compliance with the service parameters of the Philippine distribution code.

The Senate panels’ amendments noted that the franchise has not impact on the DOE’s duty to promote private sector participation in the electrification of remote and unviable, unserved and underserved areas.

The report was not signed by senators Legarda, Leila de Lima, and Francis Pangilinan.

Senators Risa Hontiverso, Palo Benigno Aquino IV, and Franklin Drilon signed the report but with hand-written notes.

Drilon noted he has “serious reservations on Constitutional issues, while Aquino said he will amend the measure with regard to scope and any provisions that may be in violation of Philippine Competition Law.

For her part, Hontiveros intends to interpellate the proposed amendments.

Due to issues of conflict of interest amid the push for a legislative franchise for Solar, Anti-Trapo Movement (ATM) has filed an ethics complaint against Senator Legarda before the Senate Committee on Ethics and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.

“Prior to the Senate acting on the subject Leviste’s franchise application, we respectfully submit that the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges must first come to a determination whether a franchise application that will directly benefit the son of a sitting senator ... will be in the nature of violation of the constitutional prohibition under Section 14 of Article VI of the Philippine Constitution,” ATM said in its Senate ethics complaint.

The Ethics committee is chaired by Senator Manny Pacquiao.

Under the Constitutional, no senator or member of the House of Representatives may intervene in any matter before any Office of the Government for his or her pecuniary benefit.

ATM said the prohibition also covers direct or indirect pecuniary benefit for relatives.

Last week, PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said the complaint, which the agency received on January 4, is now undergoing evaluation.

On criticisms that his mother’s status and political influence are paving the way for a congressional franchise, Leviste earlier said that he and the corporation “have taken it upon ourselves to doubly prove the merit of this application.” —VDS, GMA News