Nearly 6,000 indigent households with consumption of 50 kilowatt-hours or less are enjoying 100 percent free electricity, thanks to the New National Lifeline Subsidy Program being implemented by the national government.
The First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FICELCO) told the Tribune that a total of 5,892 individuals covered by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) as well as marginalized end-users living below the poverty line have enrolled in the program as of April 24, 2026.
To save qualified consumers the effort and cost of going to the cooperative headquarters in Bato, the management has launched the Serbisyo Caravan going around the 11 towns to accept applications and provide other services such as transfer of accounts.
Last Friday, the caravan stopped at Cabcab barangay plaza where scores of consumers and household representatives from the village, Codon, Bislig, Bagong Sirang and Catagbacan submitted their applications to avail of the benefit.
FICELCO has been provided by the DSWD with the list of 11,523 4Ps beneficiaries in Catanduanes, of which 4,606 beneficiaries, while another 1,286 non-4Ps residents have qualified for the discount.
The breakdown of the enrollees by town is as follows: Bagamanoc, 97; Baras, 276; Bato, 1,130; Caramoran, 654; Gigmoto, 156; Pandan, 455; Panganiban, 159; San Andres, 710; San Miguel, 837; Viga, 536; and Virac, 881.
Under the guidelines provided under Joint Resolution No. 01, Series of 2022, signed by the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), lifeline discounts are given to the qualified marginalized end-users for 10 years.
The period has since been extended to 20 years and then 50 years through subsequent acts of Congress, with ERC approving a uniform national lifeline subsidy for the implementation of the program and creating a National Lifeline Subsidy Fund to be administered by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation.
In compliance with an ERC ruling, FICELCO implemented the collection of the lifeline rate subsidy, in the amount of P0.865/kWh or about nine centavos per kWh, from non-lifeline member-consumer-owners.
This has now been reduced to just one centavo per kWh (P0.01/kWh) under the uniform guidelines issued this 2026, with those consuming 100 kWh contributing one peso to the fund.
The program grants qualified beneficiaries 100% discount on consumption of 50 kWh and below, while those with 51-70 kWh consumption will enjoy a 35% discount and those consuming 71-100 kWh are given 20% discount.
Under the scheme, FICELCO will initially shoulder the cost of lifeline discount granted to qualified beneficiaries and the deficiency will be reimbursed by PSALM.
For example, if the total discount given by the cooperative to the qualified lifeline consumers amounted to P3.5 million but collected only P70,000 from the non-lifeline consumers, the balance of P3.43 million will come from PSALM.
The management explained that the uniform lifeline subsidy rate is being applied to all non-lifeline consumers all over the country.
It said that the cooperative is complying with regulations being implemented by the national government to ensure a fair, transparent and sustainable service to all consumers and sought the understanding of all MCOs for the changes brought by the national policy on the power sector.
Some MCOs have complained about recent higher billings for power consumed but the increase is not due to the one-centavo per kWh lifeline subsidy.
The higher power rates are blamed on higher generation costs and recent spikes in fuel costs, with the electricity produced by the Emergency Power Supply Agreement (EPSA) gensets being charged at the True Cost of Generation Rate (TCGR) of more than P21 per kWh.
To soften the impact of the P1.59/kWh rate increase due to higher EPSA generation costs, the FICELCO board recently approved the charging of the P27-million cost through two equal monthly collections from consumers.