TO MY SURPRISE, I received a formal reply from the Department of Energy (DOE) in response to my column about requiring power companies to issue advanced notices to households that have very sick persons or persons with disabilities (PWDs) in case of planned power interruptions, so that they could make the necessary preparations.
I am surprised not because I feel important, but because it is not very common for government agencies to take the trouble of formally responding to ordinary citizens.
To cut a long story short, the DOE said that there is no need to issue new orders, because the power companies are already required by existing rules and regulations to do precisely that – to inform very sick persons or PWDs in advance in case of planned power interruptions. There is therefore no question about whether or not there are existing rules and regulations.
There is, however, a question of whether or not the power companies are actually doing it.
The DOE said that although the power companies are required to provide advanced notices to very sick persons or PWDs in their homes, they are not required to notify the hospitals. That appears to have been forgotten by whoever issued those rules and regulations.
The good news is, some power companies are informing the hospitals on their own.
What can we do to fully implement these rules and regulations?
Perhaps we can require all the power companies to have mandatory compliance officers?
MORE DORMITORIES FOR STATE UNIVERSITIES
The story about the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman student who was found sleeping in a bus stop inside the UP campus bothers me up to now, not only because I am a UP alumnus, but also because I stayed in a campus dorm during most of my college days.
I think that the problem of dormitory spaces in the campus is two-fold. One side is affordability, and the other side is availability.
Believe it or not, even if the tuition fees in state universities are practically free, there are still many students who could not afford to pay for their board and lodging, even in the low-priced campus dorms.
The solution, perhaps, is not only to make more dorm space available. The solution is also to make them more affordable.
Jorge Malig is a social entrepreneur who has been successful in repurposing used shipping container vans by converting them into affordable residential homes and commercial offices. After learning about the shortages of dorm spaces in the state colleges and universities, he is now offering his technologies and services that would need these.
I, on the other hand, have offered to help him so that he could connect with these school officials. Malig says that he is open to any business arrangement, as long as it will solve the problem and help the schools.
Aside from students, he could also build housing for faculty members and non-academic personnel./PN
