Alarmed by the threat of Typhoon ‘‘Ompong’’ that was of Thursday morning was fast approaching Luzon with powerful winds exceeding 200 kph, a party-list congressman on Thursday pressed the Senate to approve a bill protecting power lines that are again under real threat.
1st Consumers Alliance for Rural Energy Party-list Rep. Carlos Roman Uybarreta said any disturbance on power lines will cause widespread blackouts.
Uybarreta, vice chairman of the House committee on energy, expressed hopes that the Senate “will take this new typhoon as another reminder to expedite the Anti Power Lines Disturbance bill.”
He said that the bill, when finally enacted, will empower electric cooperatives and the distribution and transmission utilities to clear all potential hazards to power lines and prevent blackouts.
“Prevention is better than cure and we also get our technical crew out of harm’s way. We would be able to spare electric cooperative customers the power outages which usually follow when storms topple tall trees that grow near or under power lines,” Uybarreta said.
Uybarreta’s proposed Anti-Power Lines Disturbance provides a provision reserving only to the Court of Appeals the power to issue injunctions or temporary restraining orders against efforts to clear right-of-way areas of hazards to power lines.
The measure also requires applicants for building permits to first secure the permission of electric cooperatives before they build any structures at or near the right-of-way zone at power lines and facilities.
The bill has already been passed on third and final reading at the Lower House, and pending at the Senate.