WHEREAS, under Section 2 of Republic Act (RA) No. 9136, otherwise known as the "Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001" or EPIRA, it is declared, among others, the policy of the State to ensure quality, reliability, security and affordability of the supply of electric power; WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 37 (c) of EPIRA, the Department of Energy (DOE) is mandated to prepare and update annually a Power Development Program (PDP) and integrate the same into the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP);

WHEREAS, the PDP shall consider and integrate the individual or joint development plans of the transmission, generation, and distribution sectors of the electric power industry, which are submitted to the DOE; WHEREAS, Section 23 of the EPIRA, required distribution utilities (DUs), among other functions, to prepare and submit to the DOE their annual distribution development plans and in the case of electric cooperatives, to submit such plans through the National Electrification Administration (NEA); WHEREAS, it is provided under Section 4 (p), Rule 7 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the EPIRA (EPIRA-IRR) that DUs shall prepare and submit to the DOE an annual five year-distribution development plan (DDP) not later than the fifteenth (15th) of March of every year for integration with the PDP and PEP; WHEREAS, there is an imperative need to institutionalize the formulation process of the DDP consistent with the policy and structural reforms envisioned in the EPIRA; WHEREAS, in compliance with DOE Circular No. DC 2003-12-011 issued on December 5, 2003, the DDP of a DU shall include, among others, an abstract of the terms and conditions of power supply contracts with National Power Corporation (NPC) existing and available supply, and, where NPC supply is not available and sufficient, the power supply contracts with private power producers to augment the power supply in their franchise areas and to assure that power interruptions are minimized;