GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/6 February) — The national government has approved an additional grant of P93 million to South Cotabato province to fund the energization this year of several remote communities in Lake Sebu town.
South Cotabato (2nd District) Rep. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said she was informed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that it has endorsed the funding and implementation this year of the proposed electrification projects in 30 sitios of Barangay Ned in Lake Sebu.
She said the projects would be implemented under the national government’s expanded Sitio Electrification Program (SEP).
“This is on top of the P40 million that was earmarked for the province this year for sitio electrification,” Fuentes said.
She said the P93 million grant for Barangay Ned’s electrification will be sourced from the government’s 2012 savings while the P40 million will come from the area’s regular electrification allotment for this year.
Fuentes earlier said the project involves the installation of transmission lines that will connect Barangay Ned to the province’s power grid.
She said it also covers the installation of power lines within the project area and in the identified household-beneficiaries.
The project would be implemented by power distribution utility South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative, which handles the province’s electrification projects under the SEP.
The national government had tapped local electric cooperatives as the main implementers of SEP, with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) as supervising agencies.
Last year, NEA allocated a total of P6.27 billion for the implementation of SEP, with P3.7 billion coming from its 2012 budget and P2.57 billion from the national government.
Fuentes said they had identified Barangay Ned as priority beneficiary for the SEP to complement with the ongoing implementation of various development projects in the area.
Barangay Ned is the biggest barangay in the municipality of Lake Sebu with a total land area of 21,246.27 hectares or approximately 46 percent of the entire town.
The village, which hosts several coal mining projects and agribusiness production areas, has remained without electricity due to its inaccessibility and distance to the power transmission lines.
The remote location and inaccessibility of the barangay has hampered the development of infrastructure and delivery of services.
A number of diesel-powered generator sets were operating in some parts of the area but they only serve around 100 households and were considered unstable due to the rising cost of fuel. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews) source
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