Firm assures speedy transfer of electric poles

THE BENGUET Electric Cooperative (BENECO) assured the local government that electric poles that are affected by the implementation of government infrastructure projects will be immediately relocated to safer places the soonest.

This, after the public works department and the energy department issued a joint circular to address the perennial problem of unattended poles affected by road and other infrastructure projects.

BENECO general manager Gerardo Verzosa informed the members of the City Council in last Monday’s regular session that there is no more problem in the requests for transfer of electric poles that are affected by government infrastructure projects because the DPWH-DOE joint circular guaranteed the payment of the labour and materials that will be incurred by the cooperative in the transfer of its electric poles to safer places.

Verzosa explained BENECO immediately relocates its electric poles affected by government projects to allow the speedy implementation of the said projects and subsequently bill the agency for the payment of labour and materials.

Under the joint DPWH-DOE circular, DPWH regional and district offices are mandated to pay the corresponding labour and materials that will be incurred by the rural electric cooperatives in the transfer or relocation of their electric poles that will be affected by the implementation of various infrastructure projects within their areas of jurisdiction.

Further, the circular also provided the DPWH should pay to the concerned rural

electric cooperative or distribution utility at least 50 percent of the cost of labor and materials that will be incurred in the transfer of their electric poles that will be affected by their projects. Dexter See/ Baguio City PIO