(0:00:00) in the room for your work on having more reliable, efficient supply of electricity or power, and also lowering the price. As you know, there’s major developments even before the Iran-Israel-US war, wherein the World Bank was convinced to start lending for nuclear, which they haven’t done in a long time because of the fear that China will be leaps and bounds ahead of the Western world when it comes to AI because AI requires so much power. And even before that, we have had problems with grids, with islands, with the energy mix and everything. So the only statement I want to make, Madam Chair, is two.
(0:00:57) Number one, hindi totoo na may delays under our administration. In fact, even after the shooting incident and attack against the Senate noong Wednesday, may BICAM ng Thursday on the voucher system sa House of Representatives, and I actually confirmed may attendance, pero sila ang nag-postpone nun. Yung pagpunta ng farmers dito, sila din ang nag-postpone.
(0:01:26) So I thank you for pushing through with this hearing. The second thing I want to mention is that, as you all know, the chairperson is my sister. So we share the same culture and language coming from one family. And we all know, pagka-crisis, iba yung kilos. So kung may exam bukas, kailangan mo mag-cram. Kung bukas ang bayaran ng kuryente at hindi mo pa hawak ang pera, kailangan mong gawa ng paraan.
(0:01:56) So given the present crisis, it’s actually an opportunity. Because things that we wouldn’t have think of, whether it’s the loans for new power plants, whether it’s joint exploration, or whether it’s a Philippine-side exploration of oil and gas, whether it’s the bills of Senator Marcoleta regarding the lifeline rates, et cetera. Yung mga ‘to, hindi natin iisipin kung hindi crisis eh, di ba? I’ll give you an example sa hindi power.
(0:02:27) Sa K-12, nagdagdag tayo ng 2 years, pero sa findings mismo ng EDCOM, wala pang equivalent ng 8 years ang pagpasok ng mga bata. Okay? So, nung K-10 tayo, kindergarten plus 10 years. Nakaka-10 years sila plus kindergarten. Nung nag-K-12, bumaliktad. Ang equivalent lang is 7 point something, less than 8 years.
(0:02:49) So, this crisis gives us the opportunity na tanggalin ba natin isa o dalawang grade sa senior high school? Ganun din sa agriculture. Of course, we’re doing a lot. But hindi kumikita yung farmers. Of course, we’re giving subsidy sa logistic. Pero nabubulok yung pagkain na walang nangyayari. So, I just like to encourage the room to really, I know gasgas na yung think out of the box.
(0:03:13) Pero kapag ka may crisis, pati yung box mawawala pag hindi tayo kumilos ng doble, triple. So I know it’s not a one day session, one day, one hearing finding solutions, but I really hope that it’s not the statistics. I sent that to my sister because numbers remain to be a statistic until you have a human face. So nung tinext na hindi nakapag nebulize dahil walang kuryente namatay (ang kuryente)…
(0:03:45) I hope we put a human face to our power sa energy. And I’m not going to blame anyone in the room, not the DOE, not the national grid, not ourselves. I’m just saying crisis, let’s find a way to get something done. Thank you, Madam Chair.
