TACLOBAN CITY – The city government of Borongan and Dolores, both in Eastern Samar, has committed to promoting renewable energy to ensure a sustainable future for their communities.
As part of their commitment, Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda of Borongan and Councilor Randy Pomida, representing the municipality of Dolores, entered an agreement with Oxfam Philippines and the ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability Southeast Asia Secretariat (ICLEI SEAS) last March 28.
The two areas were chosen to be the pilot site of the renewable energy (RE) program that aims to increase people’s access to sustainable energy and opportunities to scale up renewable energy technologies.
The project is part of Oxfam Philippines’ just energy transition (JET) program to promote a democratized energy governance system in the Philippines and support local governments to establish enabling policy and program environment for accelerated renewable energy transformation.
In his message, Mayor Agda expresses the LGU’s optimism for the success of the RE-Start project in his city.
“Finally all of us realized that the progress of our country lies in the local government units. This will be true that the success of our country in the local government unit, no matter how vulnerable we are in terms of governance, still the local government unit proceed the growth way to success,” he said.
“When people question what RE is and why it’s important, we will inform them that it can provide cheaper electricity that our communities can benefit from,” Agda said, adding that the project can help continue their campaign on environmental protection.
Agda stressed that under his administration, the city government will cooperate with the project because it will help the LGU to become self-sufficient when it comes to energy sources using power generated from natural sources like hydro energy power plants, and help promote environment protection.
Councilor Pomida, for his part, expressed hope that thru this project, energization will reach off-grid communities in Dolores.
Present during the agreement signing were Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Resources Development and Utilization Division chief Lourdes Arciaga, Oxfam Pilipinas Visayas Field Office, Senior Resilience Portfolio Officer Juvilyn Salazar- Dormitorio, and LEDS manager, ICLEI SEAS Pamela Cabacungan.(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
