Lawmaker scores Energy chief for misleading report on barangay electrification

“Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras was given a bum steer,” said Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone after Almendras made an “erroneous” presentation the other day at the committee on appropriations that 100 percent of all barangays in the Visayas are already energized.

Evardone assailed the Department of Energy (DoE) for making a “deceptive, erroneous and misleading” presentation on the energization program of the government.

In its briefing before the committee on appropriation which is deliberating its proposed 2010 budget, the DoE said as of July 31, 2010 all the 11,442 barangays in the Visayas have already been energized.

The DoE report said “as of December 2009, the country’s total electrification level has already reached 99.39 percent with 41,722 barangays already with accesss to electricity out of the 41,980 barangays.”

Evardone said “this report is totally incorrect because I know for a fact that in Eastern Samar alone only about 80 percent of the 597 barangays have electricity.”

“Whoever made this report should be fired for feeding the DoE Secretary Almendras an erroneous, deceptive and misleading information,” Evardone said. “Obviously Mr. Secretary is either to deceive you and Congress or a ‘window-dressing’ scheme which is definitely far from the truth.”

Asked about the validity of his presentation, Almendras admitted that he was actually hesitant in presenting the report because he also doubted the report. He vowed to look into the matter.

In its report, the DoE said as of July 31, 2010 it has already energized all barangays in the Visayas, 99.83 percent in Luzon and 99.80 percent in Mindanao which means that only 54 barangays nationwide are not energized.

Evardone said this could be the main reason why the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) disapproved the P2 billion request of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) for rural electrification projects.

Evardone and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said they will asked the DBM to reconsider its decision because rural electrification is a critical component of development.

The DoE report states that all barangays in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions I, II, NCR, VI, VII, IX, XI and XII are 100 percent energized while Region III (99.94 percent); Region IV-A (99.33 percent); Region IV-B (99.52 percent); Region V (99.97 percent); Region VIII (99.93 percent); Region X (99.75 percent); ARMM (99.23 percent); Caraga (99.92 percent).

“It is very clear that these statistics are far from reality,” Evardone said, assailing too, the program of DoE to put up solar power panels in far-flung barangays which can energize only four bulbs in the plaza and barangay roads.

“Once DoE puts up this solar panels, they already consider the barangay as energized which should not be the case because a barangay can only be considered energized if its households have electricity.” –Charlie V. Manalo, Daily Tribune