A lawmaker on Friday recommended to the Department of Energy and the National Electrification Administration to formulate and implement a long-term plan for the underground laying of electricity power lines and telecommunications cables that should be done gradually over the next 15 years.
Bagong Henerasyon Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera said underground power lines and telecoms cables that include satellite internet should be central to ensuring post-disaster continuity and survival, especially in the most calamity-prone localities.
Herrera said the feasibility of laying cables and power lines underground could be studied.
“This multiyear undertaking is, I believe, the appropriate solution to end the repeated isolation of coastal towns and remote islands often in the path of typhoons—as we have just experienced with Super Typhoon Egay,” she said.
“Most storms strike extreme northern Luzon, Pacific coastal towns in Regions 2 (Cagayan Valley), 3 (Central Luzon), 4 (Calabarzon), 5
(Bicol), 8 (Eastern Visayas), and Caraga (Region 9). These towns are not many, and they are small, consisting of remote barangays and some
islands like Catanduanes, parts of mainland Bicol, Samar, Dinagat, and Surigao,” she added.
She said many of these remote locations are tourism destinations, so keeping them supplied with electricity and linked with telecoms serves
both local and foreign tourists and tourism establishments.
“Their safety and security are further assured, no matter how remote their locations may be,” she said.
In terms of funding, Herrera said a sectoral loan from the usual foreign lending agencies—Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Japan
International Cooperation Agency—would be the “likely primary funding source”, which could be attached to and augmented by public-private
partnerships or build–operate–transfer projects.