The House Committee on Appropriations has recognized the need for more funding to fully implement the government’s rural electrification program that helped in bringing power to 12.447 million Filipino households across the country to date.
This, after Davao City 1st District Karlo Nograles, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, noticed the proposed budget for Sitio Electrification Program (SEP) of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) has been reduced during the budget hearing on August 7.
NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong presented before the members of the House Committee on Appropriations the agency’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 based on the National Expenditure Program of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Masongsong said the state-run agency has been given only P1.163 billion to bankroll the government’s sitio electrification program, a P654 million decrease than this year’s budget.
The proposed P1.163 billion allocation for SEP will only cover 775 sitios compared to 1,817 sitios of the current year. Electrifying a sitio costs on average P1.4 million.
The state-run agency received a budget allocation of P1.817 billion for 2018 to finance its electrification projects nationwide.
During the budget hearing, Rep. Nograles expressed concern over NEA’s budget for electrification program, pointing out that electricity is an enabler of social and economic development, particularly in the countryside.
With this in mind, the congressman assured the Committee’s possible assistance for the NEA’s rural electrification program.
“I am not in agreement with budget cuts that are happening in each and every department. It burdens me to see something like the NEA and DOE getting this very huge cut, especially for us coming from the provinces na alam natin na importante para sa atin na palaguin ang ekonomiya ng bawat lalawigan, ng bawat probinsya, ng bawat nayon. At malaking bahagi po diyan ang kuryente, ang electricity, ang power because with power comes progress,” Nograles said.
With electricity reaching 100 percent of provinces, cities and municipalities, the focus now is on providing electricity access to sitios and households across the country.
NEA data show 19,740 sitios remain unelectrified. Of these, 8,535 sitios are located in Mindanao while 6,541 and 4,664 in Luzon and Visayas, respectively. As of June 30, 2018, the NEA and its partner ECs have energized 1,801 sitios, bringing the number of sitios without electricity to 17,939.
Meanwhile, Zamboanga City 1st District Rep. Celso Lobregat, Appropriations Committee co-chair, directed the NEA chief to submit within this week “what would be a realistic and doable target for 2019.”
“The remaining balance of unenergized sitios is 17,939 and if you want to energize the sitios before the end of the term of our President, the measly 775 target for 2019 is a drop in the bucket,” Lobregat said. “The chairman and the Committee will try to do what it can to help the energization of the unenergized sitios.”
“In view of the support of the members of the House Appropriations Committee to rural electrification, the NEA expresses its gratitude and commits to immediately comply with the required submissions,” Administrator Masongsong said in a statement following the budget hearing.
Based on 2019 NEP, Masongsong explained the NEA is given P19.51 billion corporate operating budget. Of the amount, P3.7-billion will be financed by the NEA’s internally generated funds, P1.53 billion represents subsidy from the national government (NG), and the P14.92 billion will be non-cash subsidy for the conversion of NG advances.
The proposed budget will allow the agency to meet its targets for 2019, which include energization of 775 sitios, conduct of feasibility study for the construction of hybrid generation facility in six sitios, installation of 5,000 solar home systems under renewable energy projects, connection of additional 460,000 consumers, reduction of system loss to 12 percent, collection efficiency of 100 percent, release of P1.55 billion loans to the ECs, and realization of a net margin from the agency’s financial operation.
Aside from the NEA, other attached agencies of the Department of Energy (DOE) also presented their respective proposed budget allocations for fiscal year 2019 before the members of the Committee on Appropriations on August 7 at the House of Representatives.
