CAMARINES Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte on Sunday said some 267,000 households remain without power and urged the government to intensify its electrification program in impoverished faraway communities to accelerate economic growth and effectively implement President Rodrigo Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda.
Villafuerte said the primary goal of Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda, which is to make the benefits of economic growth felt by majority of Filipinos, could only be attained if poor families in remote barrios have electricity in their homes.
Villafuerte issued the statement as the Department of Energy reported last month that it had already provided electricity to more than 5,000 households of poor families and informal settlers in Bulacan, Laguna, parts of Rizal, and Tondo, Manila.
For next year, Villafuerte said the National Electrification Administration will be getting P1.8 billion for electrification projects that will benefit 72,300 households.
The National Power Corp. will also get P2.8 billion next year to install substations and transmission lines in off-grid or remote areas, he said.
The DoE has P1 billion earmarked for electrification of 190,600 households in grid and off-grid areas, Villafuerte said.
“Having access to an affordable, reliable supply of electricity is a key factor in attacking poverty, which is why the government should further step up its electrification programs, especially in the countryside,” Villafuerte said.
“Hence, the government should all the more intensify its efforts to bring electricity to as many far-flung barangays as possible.”
Villafuerte explained energy is a facilitator of economic growth.
“We can invigorate the economy in the countryside and provide a suitable means of livelihood for poor communities only if these remote barangays have power supply,” said Villafuerte, former CamSur governor who had served for three consecutive terms.
Citing reports, Villafuerte said the DoE has set a goal of 100 percent household electrification, covering the marginalized and informal settlers.
At the same time, Villafuerte stressed another key factor in ensuring that economic growth reaches the countryside is to shift to a federal system of government.
“The concentration of national wealth remains in Imperial Manila with 35 percent of the national budget going to the National Capital Region even if it represents only 14 percent of the Philippine population,” said Villafuerte citing a 2015 government data.
Villafuerte, former chairman of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, said a genuine devolution of powers under a federal government would make local government units self-reliant and in control of their respective development agenda.
The devolution, he said, would spur healthy competition among LGUs in wooing investments, generating jobs and implementing programs to improve the quality of life of their constituents.
Under a federal system, LGUs would be able to retain a huge chunk of their respective incomes and turn over only a portion to the state government under a federal system, he noted.
With the central governing authority in a federal system having control only over national concerns like national defense and security, foreign policy, currency and monetary issues, Villafuerte said provinces and cities will have more power because they will assume primary responsibilities over the development of their respective industries, education and health services, agriculture and fisheries, and local peace and order, among others, with minimal or no interference from the national government.
He pointed out that federalism would “truly bolster the incoming President’s plan to create special economic zones outside Metro Manila to attract investments and thus stimulate development and create jobs in the countryside.”
