Verde Island's scalable solutions to take cue from First Gen's initiatives – DENR

Being the pioneer at protecting and preserving Verde Island Passage (VIP) for roughly two decades already, the work and initiatives of Lopez-led First Gen Corporation and ABS-CBN Foundation will serve as the foundation for ‘scalable solutions’ to be pursued at that marine protected area (MPA) and critical biodiversity of the country, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“A lot of the seismic work has been done by this group (First Gen and ABS-CBN Foundation) - and it is to be acknowledged and it has to be given credit because that lays the foundation for any future scalable solutions to be set for challenges in this particular area,” Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said.

Just recently, three other conglomerates which are big-ticket players in the energy sector – San Miguel Corporation, Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Manila Electric Company (Meralco) – have signed separate covenant with the DENR and Department of Energy (DOE) on their pledge to chip in initiatives that will reinforce VIP’s protection.

With this intensifying collaboration, there are also expectations that Prime Infrastructure Capital of the Razon group – will soon be joining this ‘unifying force’ for environmental stewardship not just within the confines of their oil and gas projects, but primarily for protected zones like the Verde Island.

“We have been in receipt of very positive indications of it (the Razon group) … they are also inclined in this particular agreement, so we look forward to that,” Loyzaga stressed.

First Gen Chairman and CEO Federico R. Lopez noted that the agreement signed by the other parties actually signifies pooling of resources and strengthened resolve that many of the efforts started by their group will eventually be scaled to more expansive dimensions.

“It is interesting that this other MOA with many of our co-producers that has been signed and I think through the efforts of Sec Toni (Loyzaga) and Sec Popo (Lotilla), what I’d like to see is for a lot of the efforts that we’ve done – now, we have the ability to scale it,” he stated.

Lopez conveyed that when First Gen started on its preservation work at VIP, there was an area proposed by the DENR that has to be protected – and although it just looked like an empty canal at first, the company was able to transform that into a mangrove that is now a viable habitat for 40-plus bird species.

“When we were developing the Santa Rita plant, there was an area there that the DENR told us that is a mangrove, so you have to protect that – we looked at it and said, there’s nothing there – it’s a canal. But then when we realized that DENR was serious about it and there’s a mangrove, we actually decided to protect it and we developed it – it’s 10-hectare area that over the years since the time that we protected, it came out to be a breeding ground for a lot of bird species,” he narrated.

Lopez added that the beauty and challenge of the undertaking does not just revolve around ‘Bantay Dagat’ or guarding the body of water, “it’s really, we call it ridge-to-reef, so if we’re able to do that for whole area at Verde island – including even the mountains that are nearby, and there’s probably siltation that comes into many of these sites…if we’d be able to address that up rivers and all, then we’d be able to have much more protection.”

He further indicated “our vision, our purpose at First Gen is really to find collaborative pathways to decarbonize and be regenerative…that word ‘regenerative’, we did not take that lightly, we debated about that for the longest time – and that’s a word for everyone, including those that have not done this in the past. It’s about time that we bond together for a lot of the climate change and the environmental issues.”