Contrary to DOE claim, not all barangays have electricity —solon

A neophyte lawmaker on Friday belied the claim of Energy secretary Rene Almendras that almost 100 percent of the barangays (villages) in the country now have electricity. Eastern Samar Rep Ben Evardone, the province’s former governor, described as erroneous Almendras’ report before the House appropriations committee on Thursday. The Department of Energy (DOE) report said, “As of December 2009, the country’s electrification level has already reached 99.39 percent as 41,722 of the 41,980 barangays already have access to electricity." It also said that as of July 31, 2010 all the 11,442 bargayas in the Visayas have already been energized, while 99.83 of the barangays in Luzon and 99.80 percent in Mindanao already have access to electricity – this means only 54 barangays nationwide are without electric power. Moreover, the DOE report said all barangays in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and National Capital Region are 100-percent energized. Regions having near-100-percent access to electricity are: Region III (Central Luzon), 99.94 percent of its brangays; Region IV-A (CALABARZON), 99.33 percent; Region IV-B (MIMAROPA), 99.52 percent; Region V (Bicol), 99.97 percent; Region VIII (Eastern Visayas), 99.93 percent; Region X (Northern Mindanao), 99.75 percent; Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 99.23 percent; and CARAGA, 99.92 percent. “This report is totally incorrect because I know for a fact that in Eastern Samar province alone only about 80 percent of the 597 barangays have electricity," Evardone said in a press statement. “It is very clear that these statistics are far from reality," he added. The legislator said the erroneous report might be the main reason why the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) disapproved the P2-billion request of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) for rural electrification projects. Evardone and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said they will ask the DBM to reconsider its decision on the proposed NEA budget for 2011 because rural electrification is a critical component of development. Evardone added Almendras should fire “whoever made this report for feeding the DOE secretary erroneous, deceptive and misleading information on the [electrification] program of the government." He also assailed the program of DOE to put up solar power panels in far-flung barangays, which can energize only four bulbs in the plaza and barangay roads. “Once DOE puts up these solar panels, they already consider the barangay as energized which should not be the case because a barangay can only be considered energized if its households have electricity," he added. — LBG, GMANews.TV