COTABATO Light and Power Company (Cotabato Light) has so far energized over 1,500 households within its franchise area through the Sitio Electrification Program (SEP).
The project covers Cotabato City and parts of Sultan Kudarat and Datu Odin Sinsuat town in the province of Maguindanao.
“I am very thankful to Cotabato Light for installing light posts in our community. This is a good development and big help for our residents to have access to electricity,” said Esmael Mendo, chieftain of Rebuken community in Sultan Kudarat.
According to Cotabato Light President and Chief Operating Officer Valentin S. Saludes III, the subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp. has invested around P37 million for the SEP, a national strategy aimed at helping boost the country’s total electrification by connecting sitios and barangays to the grid.
Saludes said they are on track to hit this goal next month by already putting up more than 1,000 poles and spent over 8,800 man-hours for better delivery of electricity services.
“We have identified several measures in order to meet our assigned area of completion and full energization target by November 2022,” he said.
The distribution utility will continue to bring reliable and reasonably priced electricity to far-flung areas as part of its support to the government’s initiatives to increase and accelerate community access to power services.
Without the help of local government and barangay officials, Saludes pointed out that the successful rollout of the SEP would not be possible.
“One of the program’s main objectives is to improve the standard of living in the rural areas within the Cotabato Light franchise. As such, we are constantly looking for ways to better serve our customers as we in AboitizPower continue to transform energy for a better world,” he stressed.
Once completed, the rural electrification program would provide electricity for over 1,600 households, opening more doors and livelihood opportunities to the community. -30-