Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno will push for the use of renewable energy in the country to lower power rates if he clinches a Senate seat in the May 2022 polls.
Diokno, a senatorial aspirant, lamented that consumers are always at the losing end because of “regulatory capture” that he will also push to eradicate.
“How do we bring electricity rates down? We must democratize the production of electricity. We should encourage our consumers to using renewable energy to produce their own electricity and to sell it back to the grid,” Diokno said on CNN’s “The Filipino Votes Senatorial Forum” held on Sunday, Jan. 30.
“We should remove politics from our electric cooperatives and allow them as well to be producers of electricity particularly renewable energy which they can give to those in their areas of franchise,” he added.
The former dean of the De La Salle University’s College of Law also stressed the importance of eradicating regulatory capture, the economic theory wherein regulatory agencies may be dominated by the interests they regulate and not by public interest.
“Kasi ang nangyayari palaging nagiging dehado ang mga consumers natin, ang mga ordinaryong Pilipino, dapat sila’y maging llamado (What happens is that our consumers are always at a disadvantage, the ordinary Filipinos, they should be at an advantage),” Diokno said.
He explained that the reason electricity rates are high in the country is because consumers are at the mercy of companies that supply and distribute power.
The veteran lawyer also criticized the “regulatory enforcement” of the government.
“It seems that really the provision of electricity is a more of profit-oriented business rather than something that must serve our people. There is also the issue of so much control over all the different generation, distribution, and transmission of electricity in our country,” he said.
Diokno, who is running for the second time under the ticket of Vice President Leni Robredo, also shared his stand on a number of issues.
The senatorial aspirant is in favor of resuming peace talks with communist rebels but will not support the reimposition of the death penalty for drug crimes.
Diokno also said he will still run for the Senate even without the promise of pork barrel.