‘Murang Kuryente’ bill hurdles final reading at House
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2019 12:45:33 +0000
The proposed “Murang Kuryente” bill is on its way to becoming a law after the House of Representatives passed the measure on third and final reading Monday night.
With the Senate passing its version of the bill, a bicameral conference committee was set to meet and is expected to submit a consolidated bill for ratification of the two Houses of Congress before adjournment on Friday.
With 171 congressmen voting in the affirmative and six in the negative, House Bill No. 8869 which promises to reduce electricity rates was passed on final reading.
HB 8869 is a consolidation of seven different legislative proposals filed by Reps. Winston Castelo (PDP-Laban, Quezon City); Maximo Rodriguez (NP, Cagayan de Oro City); Carlos Isagani Zarate (Bayan Muna); Gary Alejano (Magdalo party-list), and the late Rodel Batocabe (Ako Bicol party-list).
Co-author Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate was among the negative voters. He had aired reservations on the provision of the bill that authorizes the use of a portion of Malampaya funds, at least P123 billion of the amount, in partly paying for the stranded cost and stranded debts of the National Power Corp.
Zarate noted that NPC still has an outstanding debt of P449 billion, which stood at P830 billion in 2001 when the government insisted on wiping it out through the passage by Congress of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act. (Ben R. Rosario)