Senators bothered by electric posts in middle of widened roads

Several senators on Tuesday expressed concern over the electric posts that eat space and pose safety risks in widened roads that are found in different parts of the country.

During a Senate hearing on the proposed P3.93-billion National Electrification Administration (NEA) budget for 2021, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked for action plans regarding the matter.

"In many areas, the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) would widen the roads but  because of the road widening, the electric posts get into the middle of the widened road. And the widened road becomes a parking area," Drilon said.

"In some other areas nagiging space para sa mga small store... naging vendors' area. It's really been a problem which has not been attended to... You have spaghetti wires on top and a parking lot below at the bottom," he added.

The electric posts also pose safety issues for motorists.

"Eh sa gabi po mababangga mo itong mga posteng ito, eh hindi naman kayo sumisingil ng parking fee sa mga ginawa nating road widening," Drilon said.

The bothersome electric posts can be seen when one travels from Manila to Tagaytay, according to the senator.

He added that he also experienced the problem firsthand in his hometown in the past when he initiated a road-widening project.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian likewise showed photos of electric posts that were not relocated along Alitagtag to Balagbag, Batangas.

The widened portion of the road became a parking space as motorists cannot use the lane due to the posts that are blocking the way.

"It's actually not a small issue because it's nationwide," Gatchalian said.

The DPWH and the Department of Energy has a joint circular covering the relocation of the electric posts, according to the NEA.

"The relocations are ongoing," NEA administrator Edgardo Masongsong said.

NEA deputy administrator Artis Nikki Tortola said the initial estimate of funds required to relocate all electric cooperatives' facilities was around P4 billion.

"Some of the electric cooperatives have actually relocated the facilities at their own cost while those projects that are already funded by the DPWH are actually ongoing," he said.

Gatchalian said the budget is not really the problem and the bottleneck is the lack of coordination between the DPWH and the electric cooperatives.

"In any road widening project, there's already an allocation for post removal. The mechanism to do that is for DPWH to download the money to the electric cooperatives and then the electric cooperatives will move the posts," he said.

"The problem is the coordination because they apparently doesn't know who the electric cooperatives are, how much to download... The budget is already there. It's just the coordination that is failing right now," he added.

Moving forward, Senator Nancy Binay believes the relocation of electric poles must be done before the execution of road widening projects.

"Dapat bago mag-road widening ilipat muna nila 'yung poste kasi di ba isipin mo, gawa na 'yung kalsada, iuusod mo ang poste, so may butas doon ngayon na kailangan buhusan ng semento," she said.

Gatchalian asked the NEA to submit a detailed map of where these problematic electric posts are situated.—AOL, GMA News