Government to spend P5 billion more on rural electrification

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – The Aquino administration was able to electrify 1,125 sitios, benefiting 31,000 households nationwide, last year, and plans to spend at least P5 billion more for rural electrification.      

“Nobody (in the sitio beneficiaries) even knew it (electricity) was coming,” Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said in a press conference during the Energy Summit sponsored by his department here the other day.

Almendras said the government has P2.5 billion to provide more areas with electricity on top of another P2.5 billion for rural electrification.

“Our goal is all about energy access for more, for the future generation will be disadvantaged if they have no access to energy. And the more Filipinos we provide power to, the better their future will be,” he said.

Almendras said the move of the government to invest in rural areas is “for the nation’s inclusive growth.”      

“Inclusive growth is an economic development that will start from the bottom going up. We know that eventually, the investments we made for the countryside will eventually go back to the main population centers,” he said. 

Almendras appealed to the Luzon stakeholders to support the government in its efforts to provide energy for all. 

“Join us in our dream of energy access for more. It’s a very long journey. It will probably take 10 to 15 years before we finally achieve it, but with your help and commitment to this initiative we will be able to ensure the… quality of life of future Filipinos from many generations,” he said.   

According to records of the Department of Energy (DOE), 33 barangays remained “un-electrified” as of last December – 17 in Luzon and 16 in Mindanao. (There were no data on the Visayas.)     

The DOE is eyeing 100 percent barangay electrification and 90 percent household electrification by 2017.