PGMA orders immediate electrification of all barangays

by William L. Beltran

Lubao, Pampanga (August 26) — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to fast-track electrification of the remaining 2% of rural barangays in the country that are not yet energized.

The President gave the order during her speech here at the first anniversary celebration of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative II (PELCO II) inside the Lubao Sports Complex in San Nicolas 1st, this town.

Edith Bueno, NEA Administrator, reported to the President that there are already 41,154 barangays which have been energized.

This, according to her, accounts to 98% of the total number of barangays in the country, leaving a mere 743 rural barangays that are yet to be provided with electricity.

“The timeline given by the President for the complete electrification is attainable,” added Bueno.

The Chief Executive wanted the complete electrification of all barangays by yearend.

The President, also, in her speech recounted the vision of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, for the development of the Filipino people, saying the former President dreamt of bringing electricity even to the farthest barangays in the archipelago.

“Salamat sa NEA, salamat sa Electric Cooperatives for helping me put flesh to my father’s dream of development for our people – a dream that the rest of our countrymen share as well,” the President said.

The President similarly talked big about her administration’s electrification program that has extended the biggest financial assistance ever to electric cooperatives amounting to more than P5-billion.

This assistance, she added, has enabled electric cooperatives “to do your missionary work even in the so-called non-viable areas.”

Meanwhile, speaking about accelerating the government’s power and energy development program, the President said the country is already 58 percent self-sufficient in power, expecting “an even higher percentage with the full implementation of the Biofuels Act and the Renewable Energy Law.”

In a related development, the President imparted a recent feat in NEA’s electrification efforts where more than 7,000 kilometers of electricity lines were put up in just a matter of ten days.

Sometime in June, the President, in one of her sorties in Pampanga, ordered NEA to energize barangay Mawacat in Porac town where some 200 Aeta families reside.

The electrification project was jointly undertaken by PENELCO in Bataan, PELCO I and II in Pampanga, TARELCO I and II in Tarlac and ZAMECO I and II.

Barangay Mawacat is located near Bataan and Zambales. (PIA-Pampanga)