P.D. NO. 269 - The  Dream Electrification Law As narrated by Gen. Pedro Dumol and Col. Gregorio Vigilar.

While R.A. No. 6038 (The National Electrification Administration Act), which was enacted in August 1969, served as the initial foundation upon which the Philippine National Electrification Program was launched in 1970, the then Colonel (later Brigadier General) Pedro G. Dumol (who as NEA Administrator spearheaded the implementation of the program from 1970 - 1986), looking back in 1973 to the first two years of program implementation (1970-1972), felt a compelling need for new legislation that would significantly reinforce the provisions of R.A. No. 6038 and thus effectively accelerate the implementation of a true area coverage electrification program for the country.

To draft the needed legislation, NEA engaged (through the USAID) Atty. William Crisp, an American lawyer with comprehensive experience with US electric cooperatives and who, in fact, drafted the bill which was subsequently sponsored by Sen. Emmanuel Pelaez in the Senate, and by Congressman Frisco San Juan in the House of Representatives, and which eventually was signed into law as R.A. No. 6038 in July 1969. Administrator Dumol unequivocally impressed on Bill Crisp the urgent need for a strongly-worded law that would truly facilitate the implementation of area coverage electrification in the country, without which the success of the program would be seriously imperiled.

In drafting the proposed legislation, Bill Crisp was ably assisted by Atty. Gladys San Juan (now Mrs. Gary Tiongco), then a fresh graduate from the UP College of Law who was, at that time, the Secretary of the NEA Board of Administrators.

In drafting the proposed Decree, Bill Crisp deeply underscored therein the vital role that area-coverage electrification would play in the economic and social development of the country, the non-profit nature of electric cooperatives, and the heavy financial investments needed for the implementation of the program, and hence, the fundamental necessity for the national government to mobilize all practicable support for the program in terms of, among others, the exemption of electric cooperatives from national and local taxes, imposts, duties, and fees; vigorous assistance by NAPOCOR, etc. One of the key factors which significantly spurred the growth of area-coverage electrification in this country is the provision enshrined in the Decree that, in order to truly encourage and promote the growth of electric cooperatives, these must be subject to the least regulation by other agencies of government.

When President Ferdinand Marcos read the draft for the first time, he was so impressed by it that he immediately approved it and signed it as Presidential Decree No. 269 on 06 August 1973. Then and there, he directed Administrator Dumol to implement the Decree with such vigor and dispatch as to give the electrification program such momentum that nobody would be able to stop its continued growth even after he (Marcos) would be gone. The provisions of the Decree facilitated the faithful fulfillment of President Marcos' instructions.

Recently, the study group directed by Fr. Francisco Silva (NEA Administrator in 2001-2004), to review and evaluate all Philippine electrification laws enacted to-date, referred to P.D. No. 269 as "the dream law," and unhesitatingly concluded that it is the best law ever written yet for the electrification of this country.

Only a few people living today remember the dedicated efforts which Bill Crisp and Gladys San Juan Tiongco exerted in drafting P.D. No. 269 during those difficult days when the electrification program was struggling just to survive. Yet, even today, all those whose lives have been touched by the program continue to benefit unknowingly from the fruits of those efforts, perhaps, it may ease our collective conscience a bit to know that, a least, a small building in the MORESCO I (the first electric cooperative to be energized under the NEA program) Headquarters at Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental, is named after William Crisp, an attorney-at-law from Virginia, USA, for his vital contribution to our national electrification program. (by Ate Sol Tria)