Photo Credit: City Government of Ormoc Facebook Page
QUICK READ: EDC has been helping Ormoc with COVID relief since earlier in the year as part of its regenerative partnership with the city.
The city government of Ormoc in Leyte, Lopez geothermal energy leader Energy Development Corporation (EDC), and non-stock, non-profit OSPA Farmers Medical Center (FMC) have inaugurated the city’s first molecular diagnostic center today.
The testing facility will enable more timely reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing of COVID-19 swab samples from residents not only in the city but from nearby provinces.
The landmark agreement was signed by Ormoc City Mayor Richard I. Gomez and Vice Mayor Leo Carmelo Locsin Jr., OSPA–FMC vice president Atty. Roy Bernard Fiel, and EDC management led by President and Chief Operating Officer Richard B. Tantoco, and was witnessed by Deputy Chief Implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases against COVID-19, Secretary Vivencio B. Dizon, in early July.
OSPA-FMC will operate and maintain the facility with the RT-PCR equipment worth almost P27 million that EDC has donated. The laboratory will greatly expedite the processing of COVID-19 swab samples, with results released within the day, unlike before when it took up to ten days for Ormocanons to get them from the nearest testing centers in Tacloban City.
For its part, EDC reiterated its commitment to uplift the lives of the residents in its partner communities and to help them get through this COVID-19 pandemic. “We are privileged to have a significant role in establishing the city’s first testing facility. It is our way of showing our unwavering commitment to helping the Ormocanons thrive amid this health and economic crisis and our solid support to the leadership of Mayor Richard Gomez, whom we consider as one of our regenerative partners,” said Tantoco.
He was describing Mayor Gomez as one of the company’s partners in fulfilling the new mission of forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future that EDC and the rest of the Lopez group have committed to fulfill. Being regenerative is about elevating the state of everything that EDC touches such as the environment and the organizations that they partner with.
EDC owns and operates the 714-megawatt Leyte geothermal facility, the company’s biggest site that straddles Ormoc City and the Municipality of Kananga and utilizes the largest known geothermal wet steamfield in the world. It comprises the Malitbog geothermal power station, the world’s largest geothermal power plant, along with the Upper Mahiao, Mahanagdong A and B plants, and the 36-year old Tongonan power plant, which is one of EDC’s oldest geothermal power plants.
In total, EDC generates over 40% of the Philippines’ renewable energy output and serves about 10% of the country’s overall electricity demand with its installed capacity of 1,499MW. Its 1,200MW geothermal portfolio accounts for 62% of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity and has put the Philippines on the map as the world’s third largest geothermal power producer.
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.
