The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) will issue a “special use permit” for the chainsaws to be used by the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee and Task Force PALECO (IACC-TF) for their clearing and tree-cutting operations.
Jovic Fabello, PCSD spokesperson said the chainsaws are already covered by certificates of registration from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“Ang premise natin diyan, ay considered na legal lahat ng chainsaws na dadalhin nila coming from Manila going here,” said Fabello.
“Ibig sabihin dapat ang gagamitin nila are legal chainsaws. Ang kukunin na lang nila diyan are local transport permit, for them to be able to transport the chainsaw coming from different parts of the country, and then siguro mag-i-issue na lang kami ng special use permit,” he added.
Fabello said they need to ensure that the transported chainsaws will be used for the project as the PCSD wants to avoid the possibility that the chainsaws will be used for illegal activities.
Earlier, Energy Undersecretary Vice admiral Alexander Lopez (ret.) said in an interview said they created the IACC-TF Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO) in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s experience of Palawan’s power outage in his December 2018 visit.
Lopez said the president got angry over the province’s present situation and summoned the Energy Sec. Alfonso Cusi.
“So ang reaction ng DoE ay magtayo sila ng task force to address once and for all kung ano ba ang problema or what’s the real situation in Palawan,” Lopez said.
Artis Nikki Tortola, National Electrification Administration (NEA) technical services deputy administrator said 60 people from 10 different electric cooperatives in the country will come to Palawan on the second week of August to help resolve PALECO’s problems.
Tortola added they are going to address the problems of PALECO that causes frequent power outages.
“These electric cooperatives have been helping each other for so long. Kultura na iyan ng electric cooperatives. Kapag may nangagailangan na mga electric cooperatives ng tulong, pumupunta ‘yan kasama ang kanilang crew, team, kasama ‘yong mga gamit. For example papalitan nila ang linya, magla-line clearing… lahat ng kaya nilang gawin for the next three months,” Tortola said.
