Mirant Phils backs government’s barangay power program

Serving as a testimony to its company-wide commitment to corporate social responsibility, Mirant Philippines’ support of the government’s accelerated barangay electrification program was recognized with a symbolic "switch-on" ceremony held in Malacañang last May 2, 2001.

The government’s "O-Ilaw Program," through the Department of Energy, was initially launched in 1999 with the objective of stimulating livelihood opportunities in the countryside through the provision of basic electric services. The project, a multi-sectoral approach to rural electrification, aims to achieve the 100-percent electrification of the country’s 41,995 barangays by the year 2004.

As of the year 2000, the program has already succeeded in energizing a total of 1,366 barangays nationwide, reducing the number of unenergized barangays to 8,348 or 19.9 percent of the national total.

To date, Mirant Philippines, formerly Southern Energy Philippines, has electrified a total of 90 barangays in the provinces of Quezon and Camarines Sur under the O-Ilaw Program, currently the largest contribution of any private corporation to the project.

President Arroyo highlighted the event by leading the ceremonial switch-on of a specially constructed map of the Philippines, symbolically illustrating the "lighting" of Mirant Philippines 90 beneficiary barangays.

For Mirant Philippines, the country’s largest private producer of electricity, participation in the DOE project is but the latest reiteration of the company’s long-term partnership with the Philippine government to provide high-quality, reliable and cost-effective power to benefit the nation. It believes that there’s no better way to help the government in economic development than to assist in the delivery of basic infrastructure services such as the electrification of rural communities, particularly those located in remote and isolated areas.

Mirant Philippines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Mirant Corporation, is the largest private producer of electricity in the country, owning more than 2,000 megawatts of installed generating capacity. It owns and operates the 1,218-MW Sual power station in Pangasinan, the 735-MW Pagbilao power station in Quezon, the 210-MW Navotas I and 100-MW Navotas II power stations in Metro Manila and the 15-MW SDC Power Station in San Ildefonso, Bulacan. Mirant also owns a stake in the natural-gas-fired 1,200 MW Ilijan Power Plant, and operates Mirant Philippines Foundation, Inc., a not-for profit organization which serves as the company’s corporate social development arm.