Gov’t ready to spend P7B/year for electrification

The government is prepared to spend as much as P7 billion a year to fast-track the completion of projects that will provide electricity to all areas in the country, including those in the most remote provinces.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad made the announcement during the Philippine economic briefing Tuesday, as he enumerated the planned government expenditures under the Aquino administration.

The P7-billion budget for electrification, however, was deemed too big by Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras.

Almendras said the Department of Energy (DoE) would concentrate on rolling out electrification projects in the rural areas using the P3 billion budget originally earmarked for this endeavor.

Almendras admitted that President Aquino had earlier asked the DoE to spend P7 billion for rural electrification projects.

“We will try to roll out the P3 billion budget first before we even talk about spending P7 billion for rural electrification projects. We have to remember that the single largest disbursement is roughly P800 million on any given year, so we have to have a system that can handle that amount,” Almendras said.

The energy chief said the government had standby funds that it could use for these projects.

The energy chief said the government’s aggressive and renewed thrust to provide electricity to at least 90 percent of all households by 2017 was rooted on the belief that electricity stimulates economic growth in the rural areas.

By providing access to electricity, people in the rural areas are also being empowered and are given the chance to have better access to education, livelihood and a chance for a brighter future. This was also expected to create a more dynamic distribution of resources in the country.

Last year, the DoE and the National Electrification Administration were able to provide electricity to 1,520 sitios (settlements) within a record period of 90 days. The P814-million rural electrification project, which was carried out in the last quarter of 2011, is now benefiting more than 30,000 households.