DAP source of Agusan electrification funding

ELECTRIC POSTS stand in the middle of rows of floating houses in the village of Sabang Adgawan, one of the remote areas of Agusan del Sur that are beneficiaries of an electrification program funded by DAP. CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN/INQUIRER MINDANAO

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur—Amid the controversy that is now hounding Malacañang’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), some 5,000 households in remote villages of this province will have to wait longer for electricity at home.

“We expect an uncertain delay in the release of DAP funds while the issue is being heard at the Supreme Court,” said engineer Emmanuel Galarse, general manager of Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. (Aselco).

Households in the far-flung villages are recipients of President Aquino’s pet electrification projects in the countryside under the Barangay (village) Line Enhancement Program (BLEP) and the Sitio Electrification Program (SEP).

Funds for these programs are taken from DAP since their implementation in 2011. Galarse said Aselco officials received a notice from the National Electrification Administration (NEA) telling Aselco to put on hold the implementation of the DAP-funded programs while waiting for advice from the Department of Budget and Management.

Aselco is expecting P114 million in funds this month to implement the second stage of BLEP and SLEP that will benefit at least 107 sub-villages and three villages. The projects’ completion target is Dec. 15 this year.

“The people really felt the benefits of having electricity at home,” Galarse said adding that many households in the province’s remotest villages have had no electricity for years and will start enjoying the service for the first time.

Among the recipient villages are Sabang Gibong in Talacogon town and Sabang Adgawan in La Paz town where residents live in floating houses in the Agusan Marsh.

Galarse said President Aquino has envisioned the electrification of all far-flung areas in the country through BLEP and SEP before his term ends in 2016.

In the meantime, Aselco officials expressed hope that President Aquino would stand firm on DAP.

So far, Aselco had already implemented at least P248.9 million worth of projects under BLEP and SEP funded by DAP. The cooperative has been cited as No. 1 in the implementation of the program.

The DAP surfaced after Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, facing a plunder case for the misuse of public funds through his pork barrel allegedly in connivance with Janet Lim-Napoles, delivered a privilege speech saying he and other members of the minority in the Senate are being singled out in reports of corruption in the use of pork barrel funds.

Estrada and fellow Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. had been accused of plunder by the Department of Justice and National Bureau of Investigation at the Ombudsman.

Malacañang has come to the defense of the DAP, saying it was just a mechanism to accelerate spending and boost economic growth. Chris V. Panganiban, Inquirer Mindanao