Davao del Sur electric coop holds ‘Black Valentine’s Day protest’ vs DoE

DIGOS CITY — Employees and the Board of Directors of the Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Dasureco) here are wearing black shirts on Valentine’s Day to protest the budget cut on the government’s rural electrification projects.

Engr. Godofredo Guya, Dasureco general manager, said on Thursday they were protesting the Department of Energy (DoE)’s failure to allocate funds for the government’s rural electrification program this year.

He said the government had an obligation to allocate funds for rural electrification so that electric cooperatives could implement the energization program up to all sitios in the country’s remote villages.

“This is one of the advocacies of President Digong (Duterte) but they have cut the budget for 2019,” Guya said.

Guya said that with the cut, the administration would fail in its promise to electrify all barangays this year.

He said they got a copy of the letter of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, asking Congress to revoke the franchise for electric cooperatives.

“It did not go through due process,” he said. “It (has to be) the National Electrification Administration (NEA) which can recommend that to DoE,” he said.

Guya said their silent protest would be to show strong support to NEA, which would be affected by the budget cut of 77 percent.

NEA has 1,817 sitios to energize this year, he said. /lzb