The government's electric bill reached P24 billion in 2017, P11.4 billion of which was incurred by national government agencies while P12.6 billion was racked up by local governments.
The program has been plagued by delays even if the government has appropriated almost P8 billion since the project's inception in 2015. As of June 2019, only 2,677 sites have been made operational, out of the cumulative target of 34,236 sites by end of the year.
Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson said a bill he has just filed may finally help stop online scams and so-called "Tapon-SIM" crimes where criminals use prepaid SIM cards that can be disposed of to throw law enforcers off their trail.