Lopez-owned First Gen Hydro Power Corporation (First Gen Hydro) has pledged P33 million worth of donation to its host-community for the completion of a water supply and distribution system project in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija.
The donation, was formalized through a virtual memorandum of agreement (MOA), that was signed on October 8 this year between First Gen Hydro President and Chief Operating Officer Victor Emmanuel B. Santos and Pantabangan Mayor Roberto T. Agdipa.
Witnesses to the deal signing had been First Gen Hydro Executive Vice President Richard B. Tantoco and Vice President Dennis P; Gonzales; while on the part of the local government unit-host, it was witnessed by Vice Mayor Monaliza H. Agdipa as well as the town council members.
Under the MOA, it was agreed that the Lopez firm will donate P33 million “to help the LGU-run Pantabangan municipal water system (PMWS) to conduct well drilling and construction of water sources.”
The project will also cover the renovation of the pump station control house of PMWS; and then the expansion of its water lines that will be going to the individual households. First Gen Hydro is a subsidiary of First Gen Corporation, one of the country’s leading power producers, that leans primarily on clean energy developments. Pantabangan is part of its host community for the 132-megawatt Pantabangan-Masiway hydropower facility.
According to First Gen, the P33 million donation will be on top of the Lopez firm’s community relations program allocation; as well as its P50 million to P87 million worth of remittances to Pantabangan town through Energy Regulations 1-94 (ER 1-94), which funnels financial benefits to host communities of energy projects.
Under that ER 1-94 policy administered by the Department of Energy, it has been mandated that power generation companies like First Gen would need to set aside P0.01 for every kilowatt-hour of their electricity sales to be extended as benefit to LGU-hosts of power plants.
“The host-LGUs tap the ER 1-94 remittances to fund their own electrification, livelihood, reforestation, watershed management, health and environment enhancement projects,” First Gen specified.
It added that array of projects, including the rehabilitation of the town’s electric system, had been undertaken by its LGU-host of Pantabangan through its share from the ER 1-94 remittances of the Pantabangan-Masiway plant of the Lopez firm.