First Gen Corp., a Lopez-owned energy company partners with PLDT and its wireless unit Smart Communications to supply renewable energy (RE) after 7 of the Visayan-based telco giant facilities decided to use geothermal electricity, instead.

Henceforth, the partnership has committed to supply geothermal energy to power up seven facilities in Cebu (Region 6), Samar (Region 7), Capiz, and Iloilo (Region 6). These 7 regional facilities will source their R E from the 100 percent arm and geothermal energy giant, Energy Development Corporation (EDC).

It was announced that “this geothermal switch will allow us to save around P27 million in electricity costs on an annual basis for our 7 seven facilities in the Visayas by the PLDT and Smart chief sustainability officer, recently.” She added that “this will support our broader decarbonization roadmap and will enable us to reduce our emissions by about 16,000 tons this year, which amount to 26 percent of our total target emissions reduction for 2023.

Meanwhile, PLDT has expressed its desire to explore First Gen’s support “… for the expansion of geothermal energy use for more of their sites across the country, including data center.” PLDT and Smart in their report mentioned that “… decarbonization roadmap last year (2022), which targets to reduce Scope I and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030.”

In an earlier statement, the First Gen that “in 2016.we made the decision to close our doors to coal-fired power plants to keep our portfolio clean and green. and further added the Corporation is considering the expansion its solar and wind portfolio in the Philippines well as explore growth opportunities for geothermal energy in Asia and Indo-Pacific regions.

MY COMMENT:

The Lopez Group is one the more visible firms with its platform in energy, renewable energy in particular. I appreciate that with its partnership with the PLDT/Smart, they have been vocal in support of the country’s commitment to climate change protocol, specifically on the issue of decarbonization as well as the difficult decision on closing doors to their coal-fired power plants, switching to R E.
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WE need to be clear about this very fundamental truth of our Christian faith. We are meant to be like Christ for the simple reason that he is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. Everything in our life should be made an occasion, a means, a reason to pursue that goal of ours.

We have to be wary of getting trapped in the technicalities of our temporal affairs that would desensitize us from this ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. If ever, these technicalities, while given our utmost attention and care, should only be a way to become more and more like Christ.

Especially in these days of the new technologies that can so mesmerize us as to be wholly dominated by them, we need to develop a certain mechanism that would always keep us in the proper spiritual and supernatural outlook in this life. In other words, we need to be real contemplatives even while immersed in the things of the world. The ideal is to have an abiding intimacy with Christ.

One clear way is to be and to do everything with Christ and for Christ. That’s because Christ is everywhere. Being God, he is the foundation of all reality. We are not fantasizing if we look for him everywhere to find, love and serve him. And being God who became man, he offers us “the way, the truth and the life” proper for us.

What can be very helpful in this regard is to develop the practice of saying ejaculatory prayers or aspirations all throughout the day. They are very helpful in quickly and easily putting ourselves in Christ’s presence, especially when we immerse ourselves deeply in the things of the world as we ought.

They help us relate ourselves and everything that happens to us to Christ, again as we ought. They help us in keeping a spiritual and supernatural outlook as we go through the different events of the day. In short, they help in keeping us spiritually alive, and not just alive in the body and to the world.

They help us see things better in the sense that we just would not see them with our senses and our human understanding alone, but also and more importantly with our faith, which is what is ideal and proper to us. They somehow put us in an intimate relation with Christ. With them we will never feel alone nor distant from Christ.

My personal experience with ejaculatory prayers shows that they are very helpful even in making me calm and rested even in the middle of a tense situation for the mind or for the body. They help in making me breathe more deeply and thus give some relief.
Also, not to forget is that they are very helpful in protecting and defending us from temptations and sin. They make the spiritual combat and ascetical struggle, so unavoidable in life, more manageable.

They also help in preparing us for the more serious forms in our relationship with Christ as when we have to do our prayers, our sacrifices and our recourse to the sacraments.
We should all do our best to make it a habit to say ejaculatory prayers often during the day. Any short and earnest expression of our faith and piety will do. And also in this regard, the many vocal prayers that are already available can be very useful. The “Our Father’s,” “Hail Mary’s” and “Glory be’s” are truly helpful.

The Philippines is facing a serious economic challenge as the prices of goods and services continue to rise amid the rising oil prices and other upheavals in recent times. If you are not living under a rock , you would know that times are hard.

The Philippine economy is facing a challenging situation in 2023, as it struggles to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other geopolitical events that have disrupted global trade and supply chains. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by a record 10 percent in 2020, and is expected to grow by only 5.3 percent in 2023, which is below its potential growth rate and pre-pandemic level1. The country also suffers from high unemployment, inflation, and fiscal deficit, which pose risks to its macroeconomic stability and long-term development.

One of the most pressing issues confronting the Philippine economy is the rising prices of goods, especially food and fuel. The headline inflation rate, which measures the average change in prices of a basket of goods and services, rose to 8.7 percent in January 2023, the highest since 2008. This was mainly driven by the increase in prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which accounted for more than half of the inflation rate2. The increase in fuel prices was partly due to the surge in global oil prices, which reached USD 80 per barrel in September 2023, the highest since 2014. The Philippines is a net oil importer, which means that it spends more on importing oil than it earns from exporting oil. In 2023, the country’s oil import bill amounted to USD 10.97 billion, an increase of 3.9 percent from the previous year.

Another factor that contributed to the high inflation rate was the shortage of rice, the staple food of most Filipinos. Rice accounts for about 20 percent of the consumer price index (CPI), which is used to compute the inflation rate5. In January 2023, the price of rice increased by 7.4 percent year-on-year5. The rice shortage was caused by several factors, such as low domestic production, high demand, import restrictions, and supply chain disruptions. The country’s rice production in 2023 was estimated at 11.98 million metric tons (MT), down by 3.5 percent from the previous year6. This was due to unfavorable weather conditions, pest infestations, lack of irrigation, and low farm productivity. The country’s rice demand, on the other hand, was estimated at 15 million MT in 20236, which means that there was a gap of about 3 million MT between supply and demand. To fill this gap, the country had to import rice from other countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Pakistan. However, the importation of rice was hampered by several challenges, such as limited availability of supply from exporting countries due to their own domestic needs or export bans; high international prices due to strong demand and low stocks; and logistical constraints due to port congestion and quarantine protocols.

The rising prices of goods, rice, and oil have significant implications for the Philippine economy and society.

Looking at these now, times are really hard …