AUG.

24, 2012

NR # 2841

Party-list constituencies to get share of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras has assured lawmakers that their districts will be included in the distribution of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) of the agencys electrification program in the country. Appearing before the House Committee on Appropriation hearing, Almendras said there is a total of 3.6 million CFLs to be distributed to 1.165 million households under the Philippine Energy Efficiency Project (PEEP) CFL Distribution - National Residential Lighting Program. Almendras said CFLs will also cover the 182 congressional districts, the areas of concern of the 51 Party-list representatives and of the 17 Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional offices. Almendras said a total of 10,000 CFLs each will be distributed to target beneficiaries in the congressional districts and party-list groups which will start next month. Almendras apologized for the delay in the distribution which was initially scheduled in the latter part of August. Each household beneficiary will receive 2 pieces of CFLs. Almendras said the estimated annual savings to be generated from this project would be 64.8MW deferred power plant capacity, 83 MWh energy savings, P828 million monetary savings and 44,702 tons of CO2 emission reduction. We welcome this development now that party-list groups are already included in the CFL distribution, Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (Party-list, Alagad) Marcoleta said. Reps. Raymond Palatino (Party-list, Kabataan, Teddy Casio (Party-list, Bayan Muna) and Michael Angelo Rivera (Party-list, I-CARE), who were present during the hearing also lauded the electrification project of the DOE. Rep. Eduardo Gullas (1st District, Cebu) said energization of sitios is the most important electrification project and gave his full support to the approval of the departments budget. House panel chair Joseph Emilio Abaya (1st District, Cavite) suggested to Almendras that his department can tap the committees network in the information dissemination. Rep. Nur Jaafar (Lone District, Tawi-Tawi) volunteered to shoulder the costs of delivery; handling and storage of the CFLs in his district to fast-track its distribution to his constituents. The budget of the DOE has decreased from P8,814.7 billion this year to P4,347.1 billion in 2013 due to the non-inclusion of budgeted items for the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines which comprised 83% of the departments budget. (30) lvc