Lighting Homes and Lives

For generations, the people of Barangay Batang-Batang in Narra, Palawan lived without electricity. With a population of a mere 1,000, folks relied heavily on natural light for their everyday activities. At night, residents used candles for reading, cooking and other light household chores like washing dishes or setting the table. A full moon lighted the way outdoors. Life was simple indeed–and the people enjoyed the simple pleasures life afforded them.

At the beginning of 2002, energy giant Mirant Philippines Corporation launched Project BEACON (Barangay Electrification Assistance to the Countryside) with a commitment to provide electricity to one thousand barangays nationwide at a cost of P1 billion. And after many delays, Project BEACON was finally completed in October 2003.

And with that, the small barangay located at the outskirts of Palawan exchanged its candles for the bright lights of fluorescent. Before long, small industries and sari-sari stores sprouted around the community, and families experienced for the first time the joys of refrigeration. Nowadays, the people of Batang-Batang wonder how they survived the "good old days" without electricity.

"There was no resistance naman from the people–not that they had any reason to (resist) in the first place. In fact, all those barangays that we provided with energy responded in a positive way. Some literally jumped for joy upon learning na magkaka-koryente na rin sila," says Greggy Romualdez, Public Affairs Manager of Mirant Philippines. "City dwellers might make fun of such reactions because many of us here take for granted some of the things other people only dream about. I mean, their whole lives they never had the benefit of having electricity."

BEACON, Mirant’s flagship corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, is one of the largest initiatives undertaken by a single corporation. It benefits 33 provinces, 44 cooperatives, covering at least 300,000 households nationwide.

The original time frame for the project’s completion was less than a year, a goal that even Mirant officials now admit was grossly off-target. Delays were expected, particularly with negotiations with electric operatives. But it was Mirant’s trouble with the shipping of materials and the tropical whether that really held them up.

"We faced a lot of challenges," Greggy admits. "The stormy whether and the unpredictability of rain made us wait a lot. We also had a very difficult time transporting concrete, poles and lines to difficult areas with peace and order problems, to areas that did not have roads. We sometimes had to haul our stuff by carabao and that naturally took a lot of patience."

Fortunately, hard work pays off. A total of 11,963 kilometers of transmission lines have been installed during the project, more than enough to span the distance between Manila and the United States which, by the way, is where the Mirant mother company is based.

Marce Fuller, Mirant International CEO, established the Philippine subsidiary twelve years ago, and it has since provided immediate and long-term solutions to the country’s evolving energy needs, mostly in the Luzon area where the bulk of their business is located. Greggy reveals that the company also has some assets in the Visayas region, and "hopes to get to the Mindanao area pretty soon".

A sub-component of Project beacon is The Alliance for Mindanao Off-Grid Renewable Energy (amore), a public-private sector alliance that aims to establish "sustainable renewable energy facilities in remote areas and disadvantaged communities", most of which are within the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. On top of beacon, amore energizes 35 far-flung barangays in Mindanao through the introduction of renewable energy systems. Since many of the areas are unreachable by standard grid connections, Mirant utilizes solar panels and powerful batteries. This is in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"This venture provides alternative sources of energy to about 160 barangays in the armm. We had to do this because the areas there had no access to power lines so it would have been impractical to go and connect it to the main grid," Greggy explains.

Bolstered by the success of this project, the Mirant Philippines Foundation says it will spearhead another similar project to electrify an additional 500 barangays within the next two years at a cost of P500 million.

Fuller says that this is part of Mirant’s continuing commitment to the government to put in place the necessary infrastructure for national development.

Mirant sees the project as a win-win situation. "This serves a dual purpose," Greggy explains. "The rural areas get their energy, and our company will have a lasting impact on the country. We are investing in the Philippines, although the actual benefits to us are minimal. The way we see it is, if you invest in developing the countryside, it would be appreciated by everyone. And that would be good not only for Mirant, but for other investors as well."

The project faced an uncertain future for a while, for while Mirant Philippines is turning a good profit (P12 billion in 2002), the mother company plunged into financial ruin. After announcing last June 30 that support was growing for its bond exchange offers and reorganization plan, Mirant International suddenly filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 11) to the tune of $1.1 billion.

Fortunately, the Philippine subsidiary was not inclided in the bankruptcy filing, ensuring that the slated projects will continue, at least for now. The Mirant Foundation, which was established in 2000, will carry on its plans for rural electrification and projects for community development, including health, education and livelihood programs.

"Mirant Philippines has three things it goes by and follows: Business Leadership, Environmental Stewardship, and Corporate Social Responsibility. So this is basically just one-third of what our company does," Greggy explains. "It has been a very profitable year for us and I certainly hope this continues. And the bottomline is that Project beacon is our way of giving back something to the people. It is something they can use and something they really need. Most of all, it is something that they’ll always appreciate."