LUBAO, Pampanga – Gracing the program of electric cooperatives that honored her father here on Monday, President Macapagal-Arroyo said small consumers are expected to enjoy lower electric rates starting 2010 with the expiration of the power purchasing agreement at the end of 2009.
“The full implementation of the [Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001], which we passed in our administration will also start next year after the power purchase agreement that we inherited will expire. This is projected to bring the power rates down especially to small consumers,” the President said, speaking to some 1,000 employees and consumers of nine electric cooperatives in Central Luzon.
Ms Arroyo did not say how much discount was expected but her son, Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, chair of the House committee on energy, projected this to be ‘significant.”
She said the “biggest reason” why the event is held in Lubao is because the town is the birthplace of her father, the late Diosdado Macapagal, who established the National Electrification Administration.
It is also the first anniversary of the rehabilitation of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative II (Pelco II) which serves nine towns including the six towns in the second district. She thanked Amador “Ka Basil” Guevarra, a former rebel, from steering Pelco II out of bankruptcy.
“Thank you for remembering the man who dreamt of giving electricity to people in rural areas. Thank you for continuing his dream,” Ms Arroyo said in Kapampangan, referring to the NEA and the cooperatives.
It was her 24th visit in Pampanga and her 22nd visit in the second district where she is seen to be running as a congresswoman after her terms in June 2010.
In her speech, she praised the NEA for extending P5-billion worth of loans to electric cooperatives of which there are 119 all over the country.
These, she said, should all be prepared for regime of competition. “We are accelerating our power and energy development program. We’re developing more sources power of indigenous power. We are now 58 percent self-sufficient in power,” she said.
That percentage is to grow higher with the full implementation of the Biofuels Act and the Renewable Energy Law, she said, praising her son Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo for sponsoring the latter.
Government, the President assured, will continue providing services amid the global economic crisis. Amid this, she said the electric cooperatives “must work hard to bring power to the most marginalized families.”
As she stressed that “growth is achieved through hard work and perseverance,” she recognized the “vital contributions” of electric cooperatives in economic growth that she said accomplished an “unprecedented 33 quarters of uninterrupted growth.”
“Thank you for putting flesh to my father’s dream of development for our people,” she said.
3.3-M HOUSEHOLDS
Fr. Francisco Silva, presidential assistant for rural electrification, said the electrification program under Ms Arroyo reached more households than any other president.
According to Silva, 3.3 million households had access to electricity under the Arroyo administration in nine years.
Silva said past administrations had these scores: 852,000 households (Estrada}) 1.29 million households (Ramos), 585,000 households (Aquino), 1.37 million households (Marcos) and 1.2 million households (Macapagal).
Silva said rural electrification has been the “successful revolution in the last 40 years,” calling the result of among others, “the sweat and blood of NEA and 119 electric cooperatives in the country.”
“I love this president. I have a reason. She paid for all my hospital bills. I’m happy to work with the President in nine years,” Silva said.
As a way of announcing that eight million households are now served by electricity, Ms Arroyo and Silva switched on the lights of a board drawn with the country’s map.
Before the Lubao event that started at noon, Ms Arroyo came to the Pampanga Agricultural College in Magalang at 9:25 a.m. to interact with some 50 scholars of the Tesda.
“The full implementation of the [Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001], which we passed in our administration will also start next year after the power purchase agreement that we inherited will expire. This is projected to bring the power rates down especially to small consumers,” the President said, speaking to some 1,000 employees and consumers of nine electric cooperatives in Central Luzon.
Ms Arroyo did not say how much discount was expected but her son, Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, chair of the House committee on energy, projected this to be ‘significant.”
She said the “biggest reason” why the event is held in Lubao is because the town is the birthplace of her father, the late Diosdado Macapagal, who established the National Electrification Administration.
It is also the first anniversary of the rehabilitation of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative II (Pelco II) which serves nine towns including the six towns in the second district. She thanked Amador “Ka Basil” Guevarra, a former rebel, from steering Pelco II out of bankruptcy.
“Thank you for remembering the man who dreamt of giving electricity to people in rural areas. Thank you for continuing his dream,” Ms Arroyo said in Kapampangan, referring to the NEA and the cooperatives.
It was her 24th visit in Pampanga and her 22nd visit in the second district where she is seen to be running as a congresswoman after her terms in June 2010.
In her speech, she praised the NEA for extending P5-billion worth of loans to electric cooperatives of which there are 119 all over the country.
These, she said, should all be prepared for regime of competition. “We are accelerating our power and energy development program. We’re developing more sources power of indigenous power. We are now 58 percent self-sufficient in power,” she said.
That percentage is to grow higher with the full implementation of the Biofuels Act and the Renewable Energy Law, she said, praising her son Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo for sponsoring the latter.
Government, the President assured, will continue providing services amid the global economic crisis. Amid this, she said the electric cooperatives “must work hard to bring power to the most marginalized families.”
As she stressed that “growth is achieved through hard work and perseverance,” she recognized the “vital contributions” of electric cooperatives in economic growth that she said accomplished an “unprecedented 33 quarters of uninterrupted growth.”
“Thank you for putting flesh to my father’s dream of development for our people,” she said.
3.3-M HOUSEHOLDS
Fr. Francisco Silva, presidential assistant for rural electrification, said the electrification program under Ms Arroyo reached more households than any other president.
According to Silva, 3.3 million households had access to electricity under the Arroyo administration in nine years.
Silva said past administrations had these scores: 852,000 households (Estrada}) 1.29 million households (Ramos), 585,000 households (Aquino), 1.37 million households (Marcos) and 1.2 million households (Macapagal).
Silva said rural electrification has been the “successful revolution in the last 40 years,” calling the result of among others, “the sweat and blood of NEA and 119 electric cooperatives in the country.”
“I love this president. I have a reason. She paid for all my hospital bills. I’m happy to work with the President in nine years,” Silva said.
As a way of announcing that eight million households are now served by electricity, Ms Arroyo and Silva switched on the lights of a board drawn with the country’s map.
Before the Lubao event that started at noon, Ms Arroyo came to the Pampanga Agricultural College in Magalang at 9:25 a.m. to interact with some 50 scholars of the Tesda.
