The Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008 will undergo a review by the Joint Congressional Power Commission in January 2017 to determine if its intentions are beneficial to consumers.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in a recent forum that it is high time to review the RE Act, which has been present for eight years.

“No intensive review on the law has been undertaken so far, whether the intention of the law and the social benefit to Juan dela Cruz is being met,” he said.

Gatchalian, also the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, said the EPIRA will also go under review.

“Let’s not veer away from the original intention of the law, which is to decrease carbon emissions,” Gatchalian said on the RE Law.

JCPC will look into the provisions of the law and its effect to consumers.

“What we’re only looking at is business, to put up a lot of solar farms…The true intention of the law, which is the social benefit to Juan dela Cruz, is not being met,” Gatchalian said.

The law aimed to steer the Philippines from heavy dependence on fossil fuels and encourage the development of indigenous renewable energy resources with a guaranteed market for the output of RE power plants.

To date, some provisions still have not been impelemented, like the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), Green Energy Option and the RE Market.

Only the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) system and the net-metering for end-users have been implemented so far.