The National Electrification Administration (NEA) welcomes the resolution filed by the ‘power bloc’ of the House of Representatives that seeks to restore P9 billion in the agency’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021.
Power Bloc representatives filed on September 22 House Resolution No. 1245 urge the House Committee on Appropriations to restore the P9 billion in the NEA’s proposed budget for the implementation of the government’s electrification projects.
Restoring the proposed budget will allow NEA to energize an additional 3,915 sitios and enhance the grid connections of 74 barangays.
NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said the additional budget is important to realize the goal of total electrification by 2022.
“NEA will appreciate a favorable action from Congress as initiated by the Power Bloc for the restoration of the original request for subsidy if only to fast track the national government’s Total Electrification Program,” Masongsong said.
The NEA initially proposed a P10.8 billion budget for next year’s projects, such as Sitio Electrification Program (SEP) Phase II, Barangay Line Enhancement Program, Strategized Sitio Electrification for Off-Grid Areas, among others.
However, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) recommended only a P1.8 billion subsidy as indicated in the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP). The said amount is broken down as follows: P1.6 billion for SEP and P200 million for Electric Cooperatives Emergency and Resiliency Fund (ECERF).
During the budget hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations on September 7, Masongsong said the DBM-recommended P1.6-billion subsidy for SEP will only energize 1,085 sitios. The NEA chief also disclosed that some 12,000 sitios or 1.7 million households across the country remain without access to electricity.
The Power Bloc representatives Presley De Jesus (PHILRECA), Sergio Dagooc (APEC), Godofredo Guya (RECOBODA) and Adriano Ebcas (Ako Padayon Pilipino) said restoring the proposed budget will allow NEA to energize an additional 3,915 sitios and enhance the grid connections of 74 barangays including seven barangays under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and 13 submarine cabling projects.
Restoring the proposed budget will allow NEA to energize an additional 3,915 sitios and enhance the grid connections of 74 barangays.
The proposed budget, the lawmakers said, will also augment the recommended P200-million budget for ECERF, a financial assistance to electric cooperatives for the restoration or rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure after a fortuitous event or force majeure.
“To be able to fully and effectively implement the directive of President Duterte as well as to finally provide access to electricity for all Filipinos, the NEA should be given the full amount it has proposed,” the Power Bloc representatives stressed in their House resolution.