Reaction Paper for OPEMAN Forum 2014

The topics discussed during the forum dubbed "EmPOWERing Juan: Watts up with the Power Sector" are the following:

1.)  Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Republic Act 9136)

2.)  Position of the Philippines on the upcoming 2015 ASEAN Integration

3.)  Supply-Demand Outlook from 2014 to 2020

Basically the three speakers talked about our country's current position with regards to power sector, the supply & demand outlook of electricity, and the governing rules & regulations which is the Republic Act 9136. These are essential topics because we (not only us students of AGSB, but all entrepreneurs/businessmen as well) must need to know where are we right now, and how can we react & plan for the future to compete with our neighboring countries especially in the upcoming 2015 ASEAN Integration.  These topics are vital to Entrepreneurship; an entrepreneur needs to innovate ideas to differentiate from the existing market, and then translate their ideas into products. During production, electricity plays an important role. Thus managing and allocating well their assets (especially equipment that uses electricity including office equipment) must be consider during strategic planning of the business plan.

One of the striking parts of the forum is that, our country has the most expensive electricity price it's because our government doesn't subsidize portion of the cost or doesn't subsidize at all unlike other countries. Also there's no focused on privatization and competition 6 years ago. To address these issues, I think, government must help other power distributors so it can compete well with Meralco in terms of pricing and quality of distribution. Government must also target the source of power by revising the existing regulations for the power-generating plants so it'll not be limited and can produce more. With a well-crafted regulation for the power-generating plants, investors will be encouraged to invest then source of power will increase thus increase in competition and will result to lower electricity price in the future.

Senica, Carlo Phillip                                                                          

SPENTREP - S09