Free electricity, to be delivered in remote public school

Sunday 22nd of January 2012

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan, Jan. 22 (PIA) -- Following the Department of Energy’s (DOE) affirmation to provide power in all rural areas through a P5-billion fund, a far-flung public elementary school in a mountain village here will now benefit from electricity via free solar panels.

The National Power Corporation (NPC) granted the request of Governor Wilhelmino Alvarado in providing electricity and water supply to power-deprived Dike Elementary School in Norzagaray town.

NPC President Froilan Tampinco said the Bulacan governor made the request during the fourth Regional Full Council Meeting held on December 2011 at Baler Sports Complex in Aurora.

Tampinco said solar panels will be installed in the school to limit the unauthorized tapping of electricity and an artesian well will be built for the water supply.

“We are now in the process of preparing the design and the estimate of the needed utilities for this project,” said Tampinco.

Maricel Santos-Cruz, chief of the Provincial Public Affairs Office, said the governor was thankful that the NPC granted the request to help the students and teachers in improving the conditions of their small school which is located within the Angat dam watershed area.

Prior to this, DOE said in a recent forum in Clark, Pampanga that the national government set P5 billion to install electric lines in rural areas across the country in a bid to supply power to all barangays by 2017.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the achievement of total power transmission in the country is a “very long journey” that he said might take 10 to 15 years.

Almendras added that providing power to rural areas is part of the government’s campaign for “inclusive growth.”

“Inclusive growth is an economic development that will start from the bottom going up. We know that eventually, the investments we made for the countryside will eventually go back to the main population centers,” said Almendras.

DOE records showed that 33 barangays in the country have no electricity as of December 2011, with Luzon accounting for the most number of powerless villages with 17, followed by Mindanao with 16, and none in Visayas. (CLJD/JMG-PIA 3)