A party-list lawmaker has led four other party-list lawmakers in batting for total autonomy of the National Electrification Administration to provide electricity to two million households still groping in the dark all these years.
In a privilege speech, 1-PACMAN party-list Rep. Michael Romero said a P28.5-billion financial support is enough for NEA to fully benefit 13 million individuals with electricity service within a period of just three years.
He joined Reps. Presley de Jesus of Philreca, Adrano Ebcas of Ako Padayon, and Godofredo Guya of RECOBODA and Sergio Dagooc, APEC in his effort to urge Congress to fast-track the implementation of the rural electrification program to benefit even the remotest areas in the country.
The congressmen called for the passage of a legislative proposal that would institutionalize the operations of NEA by transforming it into an Authority attached to the Office of the President.
“As of this very moment that we speak, more than 2 million households in the rural areas still live in the dark. This translates to roughly 16 percent of the households in the entire country,” Romero said in his privilege speech.
He pointed out that the estimated 13 million individuals living without electricity translate to around 19,000 sitios.
“This means the over 2 million households that live in the dark cannot conveniently use certain tools and appliances in their day-to-day living. This also means a lower level of safety and security for the family members that have no access to power,” said Romero, president of the 54-member Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc, which is the second largest political bloc in the Lower House.
Under the current set up, NEA, an attached agency of the Department of Energy, is tasked with the implementation of the Rural Electrification Program through viable rural electric cooperatives.
With just P5 billion in allocation in the past three years, NEA and the electric cooperatives were able to connect 1,931 sitios to the grid under the Sitio Electrification Program, overshooting the target of energizing 1,817 sitios in 2018.
However, NEA’s success still fell short of the objective of providing electricity to all corners of the country.
“The otherwise dark reality is that the budget of the NEA has not been able to focus most of its efforts on the electrification program due to the several layers of bureaucracy that it has to go through in order to implement its plans,” explained Romero.
According to Romero, NEA as an authority with enough autonomy, can fasttrack the goal of 100 percent electrification with the support of adequate funding for infrastrucutres and support for electric cooperatives.
To reach this objective in just three years, Romero proposed that aside from the grant of autonomy, the Accelerated Rural Electrification Program until 2022 should be “put into place and executed.”
“This will lessen the unserved and underserved communities by 5.3 percent every year until light is brought to the last home left in the dark,” he said.
A P28.5 million should also be made available. This will finance the establishment infrastructure, support for electric cooperatives and also for the purchase of equipment necessary to respond to natural calamities that often result to power outages.
For his part, De Jesus said the full electrification may be implemented with the following strategies: Sitio Electrification Program with P20.426 billion budget; Photo Voltaic PV Mainstreaming/Solar Home Systems Programs at P1.390 billion; Micro-grid/Hybrid Systems at P513 million and Enhanced NIHE at P17.961 billion.