With the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in major cities and provinces to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) here in our country, people’s hampered mobility has resulted in limited economic resources for a lot of families.
Because of this, the Ladies Club of Lopez-led geothermal leader Energy Development Corporation’s (EDC) Leyte geothermal facility has extended its assistance to more than 475 individuals affected by the pandemic by providing food packages and personal protective equipment.
“We are very thankful to the LGBU Ladies Club of EDC for their support to our host-communities especially to the workers who are greatly affected by the current crisis,”said Erwin B. Magallanes, head of EDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility in Leyte. “ The beneficiaries of the LGBU Ladies Club donation drive were mainly workers who are under the No Work, No Pay scheme, thus, their livelihood was affected by the pandemic.”
This special project was done in addition to other company-wide fundraising activities for COVID-19 assistance like EDC’s donation to ABS-CBN’s Pantawid ng Pag-ibig Program, which amounted to over P2M from employees’ pooled resources.
LGBU Ladies Club President Rowena Abapo, for her part, said that they are conducting yearly charity activities usually towards the end of the year. But for 2020, they have decided to do it earlier as the current crisis situation calls for their help.
“Initially, we just started to pool funds for the face masks and face shields of the frontliners. Since there were excess funds, and we have learned that there are drivers and utility workers whose services are less needed because of the current situation, we partnered with the local farmers to provide food assistance packages. We’re glad that we were able to help others from the start and end of the consumer chain,” Abapo said.
The Energy Development Corporation Leyte Ladies Club donated to the frontliners of the community more than 450 face masks and shields that were personally crafted by the members of the club while they were working from home. The items were given to the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), and Navy Reservists who are securing the borders of EDC’s partner communities.
The team also provided 73 packs of groceries and vegetables for lockdown villages in host barangays, drivers, and utility workers, and 40 food meals for the community frontliners.
“Following the values of our President and COO Richard Tantoco, it is indeed true that the spirit of bayanihan lives on Energy Development Corporation employees as they continue to help, not because they can but because they know how it is to have nothing. While we remain committed in providing uninterrupted power services to our clients, it is also our duty to extend our help to those who are in need,” Magallanes said.
EDC’s Leyte geothermal facility that straddles between Ormoc City and the Municipality of Kananga currently supplies more than 30 percent of the country’s installed geothermal capacity. It is also responsible for putting Energy Development Corporation and the Philippines on the map as the world’s 3rd largest geothermal producer for over 40 years.
The Energy Development Corporation (EDC) is a pioneer in generating 100% clean, renewable, and reliable power as an electricity supplier in the Philippines for over 40 years. With power plants all over Visayas and Mindanao, the company is one of the biggest producers of geothermal energy in Asia and is expanding its reach in the international market, allowing it to offer customers affordable energy rates. EDC also strives to provide the best customer service it can to all its clients by having helpful salespeople and easy to understand contracts. Because of all of this, it is poised to become the premier supplier of electricity for the Philippines’ Green Energy Option Program. EDC takes its mission as a renewable energy provider seriously and goes beyond sustainability by investing in programs that enhance the environment and empower its partner communities, thereby fostering regenerative development. The company has also been working toward being carbon-neutral by improving its energy efficiency, as well as implementing various greening projects to ensure that its mission to provide future generations with a better life remains intact.