REP. CARLOS ROMAN UYBARRETA
1-CARE Party-list
Vice Chair, Committee on Energy
Member, Appropriations, Constitutional Amendments, and 7 other Committees
PANTAWID KURYENTE CASH GRANTS TO CUSHION IMPACT OF TRAIN LAW, SAYS ELECTRIC COOPS’ REP. UYBARRETA
Pantawid Kuryente cash grants to the poorest household consumers of electricity can absorb the shock family budgets. This solution to the current and near-future power rate hikes is embodied in House Bill 3350, which I filed in September 2016 just months after the start of the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
The Pantawid Kuryente program embodied in HB 3350 would be a direct subsidy to households attended to by the DSWD. A budget of P500 million is proposed in the bill.
I brought this Pantawid Kuryente bill to the attention of the Department of Foreign when the TRAIN Law was still going through Congress. It remains a sound idea and can be funded with the surpluses from revenues resulting from the TRAIN Law.
The explanatory note of HB 3350 suggests a P500 cash grant though the body of the bill itself is silent on the exact amount so as to allow the DOF and DSWD to determine the appropriate amount and other implementation details.
I ask the Department of Finance to recommend to President Duterte that HB 3350 be certified as urgent so it could have the chance of passage this summer at the earliest—when power rates are expected to rise with the seasonal increase in demand for electricity during the dry months.
I am also asking my colleagues on the House energy committee to expedite HB 3350 at committee level.
This bill will benefit the low income households, especially the various member-consumers of the different Electric Cooperatives (ECs) nationwide (END)
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