ORMOC CITY- The giant geothermal energy producer has stretched to other places in their charitable works during this coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) crisis aside from their community hosts who have also been receiving help.
Seeing the situation of the Tarangnan town from the neighboring province of Samar, The Lopez-led geothermal power producer Energy Development Corporation (EDC) in Leyte has never put their backs to the communities that are hardly affected by the pandemic even if this does not belong to the list of host communities of the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program.
The corroborative efforts between the EDC Leyte’s CSR and crisis management teams resulted to providing aid to around 500 families of Tarangnan town in Samar province, then considered the epicenter of COVID-19 here in the region.
Company CSR head Erwin Magallanes estimated around 500 families have benefited from nearly P200,000 worth of donations which included 50 sacks of rice, canned goods, and bottled water while 50 frontline workers were provided personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 and surgical masks and tyvek suits.
“EDC has decided to extend help to the municipality of Tarangnan in Samar even if the location is very far from our site in Ormoc City and Kananga town. Tarangnan has been put on lockdown or enhanced community quarantine since April 29 to prevent the local transmission of the virus in the community. Given its minimal resources as a fourth-class municipality, the town mayor has been requesting and accepting all kinds of help to aid his constituents,” Magallanes said.
As of May 26, 2020, the town has recorded a total of 23 cases, nine of which are active and 14 have recovered.
Taking into account the tightened security measures along the borders to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, personnel from the Philippine Army made the delivery of the goods to the town for which Mayor Arnel Tan and the residents wholeheartedly thanked, Magallanes added.
EDC, together with other Lopez Group of companies along with its employees, has been extending help to the government, especially to the local communities, when the community quarantine was implemented in March wherein number of Filipinos getting infected of the virus started to rise.
EDC’s Leyte geothermal facility currently supplies more than 30 percent of the country’s installed geothermal capacity. It is also responsible for putting EDC and the Philippines on the map as the world’s 3rd largest geothermal producer for over 40 years.
(ELVIE ROMAN ROA)