ADVERTISEMENT
Money
Salceda: Plan 1k7k to raise minimum wage to P1000, cut energy cost to P7/KWh
By LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA Integrated News House Ways and Means panel chairperson Joey Salceda of Albay said on Friday that he had discussed his plan to increase the minimum wage to P1,000 by reducing energy costs to P7/kilowatt-hour.
“I have discussed with [The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines] my Plan 1k7k – increase the minimum wage to P1,000 by reducing energy costs to P7/kilowatt-hour. That level of wage will allow workers to invest 35% of their earnings in pension, health insurance, and housing, which will create a new middle class in the country,” Salceda explained.
Salceda said that to lower power costs, substantial investments should be made to generate 30 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in the country.
“We need a surplus of renewables, basically, because it undercuts pricing abuse in coal, oil, and gas-powered plants. You can’t artificially reduce the supply of the wind or the sun,” Salceda pointed out.
In addition, Salceda said that the government should come up with a plan to boost renewable energy investments which will result in even more investments in other sectors.
In doing so, Salceda said there is a need to clarify that renewable energy is part of green financing as defined in the implementing rules and regulations of the Agri-Agra amendments.
ADVERTISEMENT
Salceda said there was also a need to review whether the Foreign Investments Negative List law still needed to be amended to truly allow renewable energy investments to come in.
“I think we don’t have to, but the DOE (Department of Energy) has requested NEDA to make an explicit amendment just to be sure,” Salceda said.
Salceda also said that cash-flush government financial institutions needed to invest in more renewable energy projects directly.
“That is the expressed aspiration of President [Ferdinand] Bongbong Marcos with the Maharlika Investment Fund. He explicitly mentioned investment in dams. That hits two birds with one stone – water supply issues and power constraints,” he said.
Salceda also pushed for expediting the issuance of land use permits for renewable energy by letting the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) set guidelines as well as consider renewable energy battery technology.
“We are a world leader in producing copper, nickel, and cobalt – key metals for batteries. If we can make batteries here, that will complete the value-chain. So, incentives for processing minerals here, as well as for manufacturing and research on batteries will be all-important,” Salceda said. — DVM, GMA Integrated News