Led by the Alcantara group whose over 50 years of steadfast commitment to Mindanao can be seen in its investments in property development, agribusiness and aquaculture, and power generation, the Alsons Power Group continues to give back to the island in a big way. Aside from putting up much-needed energy infrastructure, paying taxes and creating jobs, the homegrown power generation company carries out generously funded social development programs for people in and around the communities where it operates.
For 2016 alone, the group has allocated a total of P40 million for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in Mindanao, comprising various initiatives in the areas of education, environmental stewardship, and infrastructure and community development.
The group’s corporate citizenship initiatives this year remain focused on education with 200 deserving students chosen as beneficiaries of its scholarship program for SY2016-2017, and with its funding of the construction of a new school building at Alabel National High School in Sarangani, and a multi-purpose gym in Barangay Baluntay’s Datu Abdullah Tondog Elementary School also in Alabel, Sarangani.
Alsons Power has allocated funds as well to the Alcantara Foundation’s reading enhancement program dubbed Samahang Big Brother, which is designed to improve the reading skills of children in the communities and provides faculty development training for teachers.
Alsons Power’s Corporate Affairs manager Ruben Tungpalan said, “We believe that education is key to poverty alleviation and, as such, has always been the group’s priority program especially in the underserved areas where we operate. We want to be a major contributor to the improvement of people’s quality of life of people in the Mindanao communities that have been home to our businesses from the very start.”
The group also supports several socio-civic projects that include the purchase of hospital equipment to be utilized by the Provincial Hospital of Sarangani, and basic medical equipment for the use of barangay health workers. Its livelihood and environmental initiatives, on the other hand, include river and coastal protection and enhancement programs, bangus fry re-stocking for Sarangani Bay, and water system development at Barangay Baluntay in Alabel, Sarangani, among others.
Committed to providing safe, reliable and affordable power to the people of Mindanao and the rest of the country, the Alsons Power Group is expected to be generating a total of 588 MW by 2019 – a little over 25 percent of Mindanao’s projected peak power demand.
It currently operates four power plants in Mindanao which include Mapalad Power Corporation’s 103-MW (megawatt) diesel plant in Iligan City; the 55-MW Southern Philippines Power Corporation diesel facility in Alabel, Sarangani; the 100-MW diesel plant of the Western Mindanao Power Corporation in Zamboanga City; and the 105-MW first section of the Sarangani Energy Corporation’s coal-fired power plant in Sarangani. All four power plants will be operating to help alleviate the energy shortage in Mindanao and ensure a steady supply of electricity during the May elections.
