Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (Facebook)

A ranking congressman is prodding local government unit (LGU) heads to help beef up participation in the Lifeline Rate program for the benefit of low-income consumers who find it a struggle to pay their monthly electricity bills.

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte was referring to the brand new subsidy program that provides hefty discounts on the electricity bills of households consuming 100 kilowatt hours (kWh) or less every month.

Villafuerte said that only 191,399 have signed up for it as of mid-December 2023. The program will start this January 2024.

“LGU executives, most especially those in far-flung communities, apparently need to do some heavy lifting in helping ordinary electricity consumers become aware of, and sign up for, this Lifeline Rate program," said the majority leader of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA).

So far, the number of registrants make up only about 4.55 percent of a government-projected 4.2 million beneficiary-households listed as the poorest of the poor families under the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

“The trio of agencies implementing this power subsidy program—Departments of Energy (DOE) and of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)—should also consider the possibility of raising the threshold for target beneficiaries so a lot more marginalized electricity consumers could avail of this Lifeline Rate program," added Villafuerte.

DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau (EPIMB) Director 3 Luningning Baltazar had revealed in a news briefing that “other 4Ps are also located in far-flung and dispersed areas which are hard to reach and are unaware of this program".

Alongside the cluelessness of many intended beneficiaries and lack of individual electricity meters, Baltazar disclosed that one more reason for the low number of registrants is the low threshold or consumption level needed for consumers to qualify for the subsidy.

She explained that there are areas in the Visayas, for instance, where the threshold is only 25 kWh—as against the average monthly residential consumption rate of 200 kWh—hence discouraging many consumers from registering for the program.

Villafuerte said LGU officials will have to encourage their constituents to go out and sign up with the subsidy program.

Although the program starts this month, Baltazar said there is no deadline for the registration. This means any eligible electricity consumer can just visit the office of the DU concerned and sign up for the subsidy.

The Lifeline Rate program was originally supposed to start in July 2023, but its implementation was put off to January this year precisely because of the low turnout of registrants.