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The government wants to complete its rural electrification program
in the next two years to cover areas in Mindanao that continue to be
without electricity.
In a statement yesterday, the Department of
Energy (DOE) said the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
continues to have the lowest electrification rate in the country,
with only 84.34 percent of its 2, 671 villages with electricity.
On the national level, 3 percent of the
country’s 42,000 villages are still without electricity.
DOE Secretary Angelo Reyes said the government
plans to fully energize the entire Philippines by 2010 to use
“electricity as the platform to create employment opportunities in
the rural areas and increase productivity among residents in remote
and off-grid villages.”
In line with efforts to accomplish this task,
Reyes said the government is looking at various government agencies,
electric cooperatives, private business and members of the civil
society to help “wire and light” the country’s remaining 1,400
villages without electricity.
“Back in 1999, there were about 9,600
unlighted villages—most of them in the boondocks or remote
islands. This year, as a result of partnerships and collaboration
with partners, all these villages were divided among the
stakeholders to ensure the completion of the targeted villages in
accordance to the set time frame,” he said.
With regard to electricity-starved ARMM where
416 villages are still without electricity, Reyes said 122 villages
from Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao
have been assigned to the Amore program, representing 30 percent of
the total villages to be energized in the Muslim region.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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