CLARK FREEPORT – Sans the fanfare of inaugurations, the Aquino government was able to electrify 1,125 sitios benefitting 31,000 households nationwide last year, as amid plans to spend no less than P5 billion for rural electrification.
“Nobody (in the sitio-beneficiaries) even knew it (electricity) was coming,” Energy Sec. Jose Rene Almendras said in a press conference during the Energy Summit held here the other day by the Department of Energy.
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 noted that the move of the government to invest in the 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 explained.
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 economic liability of the Philippines and the quality of life of future Filipinos from many generations” he said.
Records of the Department of Energy (DOE) indicate a total of 33 unelectrified barangays in the country as of December 2011.
Of the three island clusters, Luzon has the most number of unelectrified villages with 17 while Mindanao has 16.
No record was noted in the Visayas.
DOE eyes 100 percent barangay electrification and 90 percent household electrification by 2017.
