Bacolod City – As per monitoring of Power Watch Negros, the application of the Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC) for a legislative franchise, as embodied in H.B. No. 9805, had already passed the preliminary phase of the complex legislative labyrinth in the Senate, a press release from Power Watch said.
NEPC was able to hurdle the first and second reading, passing through the “eye of the needle.” Then comes the third and the last reading of the bill and the vote thereon taken immediately thereafter. If approved, the bill is then referred to the other House and to the Joint Bicameral Committee. A bill approved on third reading by both Houses shall be printed and forthwith transmitted to the President for his action.
In this third and final reading, Wennie Sancho, Secretary-General of Power Watch Negros, opined the NEPC franchise will be going through the “refiner’s fire,” so that when the franchise of NEPC shall be granted by Congress, it will become pure and perfect like gold, strong and sturdy, in full command of all the resources needed, to fulfill the mandate of the NEPC franchise for the distribution of electricity for public use and to provide quality, reliable, secured and affordable power supply to the consumers concerned in the former franchise area of CENECO.
Furthermore, the slow and meticulous process prior to the granting of a legislative franchise is a mechanism to ensure that the grantee of the franchise should not depart from the law so as not to create uncertainty. The NEPC franchise shall be an era of adequate power supply and efficient services to provide a conducive investment climate.
The franchise of NEPC will be a standard of excellence that will release us from the bondage of power outages. A franchise, like any legal document, must undergo a difficult struggle, a “refiner’s fire” because it embodies the aspirations of the consumers with NEPC paving the way for a new and bright tomorrow. The NEPC franchise will be granted sooner than later, said Sancho.
(Source: Power Watch Negros Press Release)