READ | Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla’s Message at the DOE Virtual Flag Raising Ceremony
5 September 2022
Magandang umaga sa ating lahat. Today is the first Monday of the month, and I wanted to share a few things.
The first is that in the last cabinet meeting, the President stressed the need to shift gears and start implementing structural reforms to attain the Administration’s development agenda for energy security. Bureaucratic efficiency and quality jobs are among others. The President guided concerned departments and agencies to implement structural reforms to achieve the Administration’s development agenda. Even early this term, the President is already counting the number of days left in his Administration, and this kind of sense of urgency is one that we ought to be sharing with the rest of the bureaucracy.
When the President talks about bureaucratic efficiency, there have been reforms that the Department of Energy Philippines has initiated. And I congratulate you all on moving the Energy Virtual One Stop Shop (EVOSS) system. But of course, this has to be expanded to include all other agencies and to make our use of the EVOSS more efficient. On the part of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), they have also committed to speed up their implementation of EVOSS and to expand even beyond what is required by law. In other words, other processes that the movements that EVOSS does not cover would also be subject to timelines. And I think it is good to have this in mind, primarily since many structural reforms concern the energy sector.
In the coming weeks and months, we will submit proposed Legislative and Executive Issuances to facilitate the needed reforms.
For example, I am happy to share that I have already signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the Electric Vehicles, which was prepared by our Energy Utilization Management Bureau (EUMB). I want to congratulate Director Patrick Aquino and his team for ensuring that we meet the deadline for the issuance of the IRR as required by law. Other challenges remain in implementing and issuing additional implementing rules and regulations. Still, I am sure, and I am confident that we will be able to move on those.
Now, in all of these, we must remember that the private sector is our partner. And among the earliest forms of Public Private Partnership (PPP) was the service contract in the upstream sector. And with the risks our service contractors take, our risks are also very high. Therefore, we see them as partners in this. But above all, of course, we have our responsibilities and obligations under Presidential Decree 87: to keep the national interest first and foremost. So in all of these, I would like to urge all of you to do our work well. And to take advantage of whatever knowledge our development partners and private sector have to offer, we can move the President’s development agenda forward.
Maraming salamat po at magandang umaga sa ating lahat.
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