CALAPAN CITY ,Philippines – President Aquino has promised to complete the electrification program of the remaining un-energized 36,000 sitios or communities in the country before the end of his term in 2016.
The President said the Department of Energy is also working on the full electrification of Oriental Mindoro by 2014.
“This is no joke, 36,000 communities will be given electricity. Surely we can do that, and with the help of one another we can do it faster, and we have the ability to do it, ” the President said in his speech here after the ceremonial switch-on of the 2.1 Megawatt Linao-Cawayan Mini-Hydro Power Plant as well as the 45 villages under the Sitio Electrification Program last Friday.
The President also cited the wind power, geothermal and hydropower potentials of Oriental Mindoro, saying diesel would soon be a secondary supply of electricity in the province.
The hydropower plant facility, which was funded by the Development Bank of the Philippines, is the first renewable energy project constructed by an electric cooperative, the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative Inc. (Ormeco), after the passage of Republic Act 9513 or the “Renewable Energy Act of 2008.”
The project, which amounted to P21.022 million, will initially benefit 978 families.
The power plant is part of the 5.1- Megawatt Linao-Cawayan Mini Hydro Power Plant project, of which the 3.0-megawatt upper cascade is already fully operational.
The second phase of the project, the three-megawatt Linao Cawayan Mini Hydro Power Plant project in Bigaan, San Teodoro town in Oriental Mindoro province, is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2013.