30,000 sitios across RP still without electricity

MANILA, Philippines—The 30,000 sitios all over the country groping in the dark cannot expect light soon after Malacañang thumbed down the proposed P2 billion electrification project of the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

Several lawmakers who attended the budget presentation of the NEA, Department of Energy and its attached agencies Thursday expressed dismay at the budget cut and called on the Aquino administration to restore the outlay or allow realignments or insertions in the proposed 2011 appropriation to fund the electrification project.

Nueva Vizcaya Representative Carlos Padilla said the administration’s target of 100 percent electrification in the country by 2020 would be difficult to achieve if it would not our in resources to it.

He lamented that while Malacañang can give P7 billion to subsidize the Metro Manila riders of Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit, it allocated zero for rural electrification.

“Metro Manila is only 11 percent of the total population, how about the 89 percent. We’ll take the risk if there’s a general aversion to congressional insertions, so long as it would be good for the rural areas,” Padilla told the hearing of the appropriations committee.

Zambales Representative Ma. Milagros Magsaysay also appealed to Cavite Representative Joseph Emilio Abaya, chairman of the appropriations committee, to find a way to fund the electrification project.

“Although I did not support the president in the election, I do very much support his administration as far as giving budget to the necessary agencies is concerned that’s why I’m lobbying very hard to realign the budget and give it to certain agencies which I feel has been stunted because their budget have been severely cut by this administration,” she said.

Magsaysay and Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, in an interview after the hearing, pressed for the release of the P644 million congressional insertions in the 2010 budget for electrification.

Abaya vowed to look closely into the budget, echoing that electrification could not be implemented without funds.

In his presentation, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the P2 billion proposal of NEA was slashed, leaving the agency with only P5.1 billion for operational expenses.

This came amid the agency’s target of 100 percent electrification for the entire country by 2020.

Editha Bueno, NEA administrator, said the P2 billion proposed fund could light up 1,500 sitio for 2011. She said electrification would be a continuing project until a 100 percent completion in 2020.

Out of the 30,000 sitio, Mindanao has the most number of sub-villages without electricity at 13,000, while 99 percent of Luzon and Visayas regions already have electricity. –Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQUIRER.net