LEGAZPI City – Polangui Mayor Raymond Adrian E. Salceda, running for the 3rd Congressional district of Albay, has vowed to push the modernization of his province’s electric cooperative, a festering problem for the Albayanos that many before him were hard put to solve.
Addressing a recent business forum here, Salceda said that years ago as a young politician in Polangui town, he had seen how communities suffered and businesses floundered under constant brownouts – often referred to as state of emergency – when the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) could barely provide enough power supply.
The forum, dubbed as “Vision for Business: Candidates’ Insights,” was organized and sponsored by the Albay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Radio Station DZGB.
Salceda currently leads the latest Pulse Asia local survey with 54% for the Congressional fight in his district. If elected, he promised to source out funds, an initial P600 million during his first term in Congress, which is part of the P1.8 billion requirement to put Aleco on its feet with modern equipment, be able to fully provide the province’s power needs, and resolve its mounting debt problems.
Backing Salceda’s plan is his father, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, who ends his term in June this year, and himself is gunning for the governorship of Albay with ‘Global Albay’ as platform.
The elder Salceda is setting the tracks of Aleco’s modernization before he steps down as lawmaker in June, among them putting up a number of substations around the province, from which infrastructures the younger Salceda is expected to take off.
Mayor Salceda has also promised to support alternative source of energy among them wind and solar farms, and help big power consumers such as malls, commercial centers and industries form retail electricity suppliers or RES under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or Epira Law.
Large power consumers are given the option to tap these other sources of energy whenever they are not satisfied with the services of existing traditional power suppliers, he said.
He also vowed to solve the water supply problems in his district, and raised his opposition to giving these facilities to the private sector, stressing that consumers should be protected from sudden spikes in rates, and that there are other viable programs to improve and rehabilitate water facilities.
Mayor Salceda is dubbed a ‘visionary’ by many of his townmates and local leaders. He started as an SK chairman, the became a barangay captain, and later as mayor in a span of 15 years, and subsequently as President of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines – Albay Chapter.
Under his term as mayor, Polangui received various awards, among them: a citation for Good Financial Housekeeping given to local government units that passed the standards of the Commission on Audit for sound fiscal management, transparency, and accountability; and the 2023 Seal of Good Local Governance Award, which recognizes outstanding LGUs in financial administration, disaster preparedness, social protection, peace and order, business-friendliness and competitiveness, environmental protection, and tourism, culture, and the arts.
Salceda said his priority programs are rolled into what he termed as “HEART 4S,” centered on Health, Education, Agriculture, Rural Infrastructure, Tourism, Trade, and Industry, and Social Services, Senior Citizen and Solo Parents, Small and Micro Enterprises, and Sports and Youth Development.