THE Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) welcomed the move to regionalize the power generation in the country.

MBCCI president Roberto Montelibano said this would be advantageous to the Visayas, particularly the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.

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He said the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has presented a resolution urging the National Government to create an Energy Program Commission (EPC) to study how to achieve regionally-competitive power rates and reliability of power supply.

He said the EPC shall be composed of the PCCI, the Department of Energy (DoE), the Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).

The resolution was presented to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Wednesday at the closing plenary of the 35th Philippine Business Conference and Exposition (PBC & E) in Manila Hotel.

MBCCI director Edward Gasambelo, who is also the president of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), said the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid is now at a critical situation and regionalizing the power generation is beneficial to the region.

He explained that it is now experiencing power supply deficiency and the grid has to make a scheduled rotating load shedding everyday that results to power failures (brownouts) that occur three to four times a day.

The power problem was one of the issues raised by MBCCI during the Visayas Area Business Conference last July. It presented a resolution before the chamber that then approved it and submitted to PCCI.

Gasambelo added that PCCI is urging local chambers to participate in the development of the power sector and assist in the faster development of sustainable power generation projects.

The PBC & E was attended by about 1,000 businessmen-delegates from 98 local chambers around the country.

MBCCI was represented in the PBC & E by Roberto Montelibano—president, Jose Ma. Zayco—vice president for External Affairs, Frank Carbon—vice president for Internal Affairs and Edward Gasambelo and Ernie Pestano—directors.