Congressman Rufus B. Rodriguez of the second legislative district of Cagayan de Oro and his brother Congressman Maximo B. Rodriguez of Abante Mindanao urge the Aquino administration to affirm its stand to the development of renewable energy in order to attract investors in the country.

The two congressmen said that on June 2011 President Benigno S. Aquino launched the government's National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) aimed to address the spiraling cost and insufficiency of supply of electricity. The NREP contains a framework for action, existing and future measures, instruments and policies for the promotion of renewable energy as well as a roadmap that will guide towards actualizing the market penetration targets of each renewable energy source in the country.

However, the Philippine's Board of Investments (BOI) is seeking the temporary postponement of the implementation of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, particularly the feed-in tariff (FIT) rate provision, as it says the country first needs to attract more investments and stay competitive in the global arena. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) undersecretary and BOI managing head Cristino Panlilio said it would be prudent for the government to consider halting the roll-out of new renewable energy (RE) projects in order to avoid burdening power consumers considering that Philippines electricity rate are
already too high.

Cong Rufus for his part, this mixed signals from different agencies of the same administration could potentially scare off investors as it sends off the wrong signals and further cements the perception that the government is inconsistent in its policies. He added that the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and the European National Chambers have expressed apprehension over this stand of the BOI saying that this would deal a huge blow to the country's pursuit of new investments.

They further stated that, "If the administration were to change the policy soon after that statement, it loses the trust from not only foreign investors in the power sector but also in other sectors. Lack of consistency will definitely make the Philippines less competitive". The groups said the main focus should not be on the immediate rate impact but on the long-term benefits to the country of increasing the share of Renewable Energy (RE) in the power mix and the additional 12 centavos per kilowatt-hour to be added to power rates as a result of the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme would be more than offset by the number of Jobs that a strong RE environment would create and the additional investments that the country would be able to secure in the RE space.

Source: Gold Star Daily (www.goldstardailynews.com); News; 26 January 2012