ACOLOD CITY, Philippines - A Water Resource Commission will be created by President Benigno Aquino III to systematize the water resources management in the country.
Aquino was in town yesterday as speaker in the Philippine Economic Briefing, held at L' Hotel, with over 300 multisectoral representatives, including business, government and public officials in attendance.
He said, the Water Resource Commission ''will be the central organization uniting the different agencies into one agency to come up with a comprehensive plan how we are to utilize our water resources, which is the next important resource that is being challenged worldwide''
Frank Carbon of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) has pointed out to the President during the open forum, that water security must be a priority of the President's administration. ''There should be an integrated and comprehensive action plan when it comes to water resources management,'' Carbon also said.
In reply, Aquino told MBCCI, ''we propounded the legislation of the creation of a water resource commission to address this concern.''
He also said, ''you in Bacolod are more concerned with specific areas in our priority sector like sugar, biofuel, tourism, business process outsourcing (BPO), aquaculture, micro, small and medium enterprises, water, and power. We are working on it.''
He also lauded the economic development in Bacolod because the sugar industry is doing well, the call center industry has also been growing and many jobs are stimulating several other industries here.
With regards to supporting the biofuels industry, Aquino said ''allow me to study a little further but I was made to understand if it comes to ethanol we have to import a significant portion of ethanol requirement because we are not producing it. The farmers want their sugar to be sold as food rather than ethanol. The government has already expressed its support to the bio-ethanol industry. In terms of energy sufficiency, there are several investors interested in putting up coal-powered generating plant here in Negros, but there is resistance from the community. Unfortunately, the proposal to shift to nuclear sources is something that has to be really well-thought of, and I'm sure there will be tremendous debate on that particular topic. But the point is, when do we get the energy if we go towards that level?
So we will ask the Secretary of Energy to conduct more dialogue to ensure that economic growth is sustained by the availability of reasonable power rates. The Administration is doing measures to create an environment where businesses thrive so that the economy continues to grow.''
