Transmission lines occupy a vast field in San Miguel, Bulacan in this photo taken June 7, 2024. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday (Dec. 31) said the PHP6.352-trillion budget for 2025 ensures funding for the rural electrification program. (PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)
The approval of the PHP6.352-trillion 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) ensures significant progress in the government’s rural electrification program.
The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has been allotted a government subsidy of P1.87 billion to implement its strategic rural electrification and provide electricity for approximately 22,000 households.
“We hope that the budget allocation for the National Electrification Administration for 2025 would help push the rural electrification program to its completion in the next couple of years,” Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in a news release.
NEA had earlier claimed that inadequate government subsidy has been the biggest challenge to achieving 100 percent rural electrification.
The government’s target is to reach total electrification by 2028.
Gatchalian noted that an estimated 4.214 million households throughout the country were still without electricity as of June 2023.
As of 2023, electrification in the country stood at 89 percent and rose to 91 percent in 2024.
Based on the five-year electrification plan, the government aims to increase coverage to 94 percent by 2025, 97 percent by 2026, and 100 percent by 2027.
As of August 2024, NEA had energized 1,153 sitios through government subsidy in 2023.
“While the five-year plan to achieve 100 percent electrification by 2028 has been progressing, the government needs to ensure that such a target will be achieved through budgetary support,” the senator said.
He said economic development, particularly in rural areas, would be difficult to achieve without electricity as it is a significant factor in attracting investments and in the operations even of micro and small business enterprises.
“Ang kuryente ay isang pangunahing pangangailangan para sa iba’t ibang negosyo na kailangan natin sa mga malalayong lugar para makapagbigay ng trabaho at para sa tuloy-tuloy na pag-unlad ng ekonomiya (Electricity is a basic need for various businesses to prosper in far-flung areas, to provide jobs and continuous economic growth), Gatchalian said. (PNA)