SUN LIFE PARTNERS WITH ABS-CBN FOUNDATION
IN PASIG RIVER CLEAN-UP
[PHOTO
AT LEFT - Gina Lopez, managing director of ABS-CBN Foundation, receives from Sun
Life officials a check worth P9.7 million for housing units to be built in
Laguna. Also in photo are (from left) Raffy Alunan, chairman, Lopez Group
Foundation; Carmina Aragon, project director, ABS-CBN Foundation; Oscar Lopez,
chairman, Knowledge Channel Foundation; Stephan Rajotte, president, Sun Life
Financial Asia; Rizalina Mantaring, president, Sun Life Financial Phils.;
Gregory Martin, trustee, Sun Life Financial Phils. Foundation; and Eduardo
Salem, executive director, Sun Life Financial Inc. JOVEN
CAGANDE |MANILA, Philippines]
MANILA, OCTOBER 11, 2009 (STAR) By Rhodina Villanueva - Insurance company Sun Life Financial and officials of the ABS-CBN Foundation yesterday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that will facilitate the continuous clean-up of the Pasig River as well as development of communities surrounding it.
A check in the amount of P9.7 million was turned over by Sun Life officials to ABS-CBN executives as they vowed to donate 580 housing units to be built in their environment-friendly village called “The Legacy of Light Village” in “Bayanijuan sa Calauan” in Laguna.
“Bayanijuan sa Calauan” is the official resettlement site of Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig (KBPIP) formally launched last February.
Sun Life Financial Philippines Foundation executive director Eduardo Salem said that construction of the houses will be completed over five years.
“Sun Life will fund 114 houses for this year as they celebrate their 114th anniversary, 115 houses for their 115th celebration next year, and so on, until we have donated a total of 580 housing units,” Salem explained.
Starting June, KBPIP has begun the regular relocation of families living near the banks of Estero de Paco, the initial focus of KBPIP’s efforts. To date, 430 families have been relocated to Bayanijuan sa Calauan from Estero de Paco.
Sun Life also committed to raise resources for green technology such as solar panels, rainwater harvesting, materials recovery facility and other similar features.
A model of the green low-cost house will be put up in the La Mesa Ecopark in Quezon City, as part of Bantay Kalikasan’s Eco-Academy that encourages education, training and advocacy on sustainable living.
Aside from funding a green village for the resettlers of KBPIP, Sun Life will further help the Pasig River cause by participating in full force in the upcoming Philippine International Marathon: A Run for the Pasig River to be held in Nov. 8, 2009.
Sun Life is likewise supporting Knowledge Channel’s video production and broadcast of Elementary Algebra for Philippine high school students.
An agreement that will provide for the development of a Math course aimed at enhancing students’ learning in this field was signed by Sun Life and ABS-CBN executives.
To immediately start off with the project, Sun Life handed over a check worth P5.3 million to officials of the Knowledge Channel.
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN Foundation managing director Gina Lopez was also thankful for the partnership.
Signing the agreement were Sun Life Financial Asia president Stephan Rajotte, Sun Life Financial Philippines president and CEO Rizalina Mantaring, Sun Life Financial trustee Gregory Martin, Lopez and Knowledge Channel president and executive director Rina Lopez Bautista.
Also present as witnesses were Lopez Group chairman Oscar Lopez, Lopez Group Foundation chairman Raffy Alunan, and Salem.
Meralco: Rotating blackouts to go on By Donnabelle Gatdula (The Philippine Star) Updated October 11, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The series of rotating blackouts will continue as restoration work on the damaged transformers at the Dolores substation, owned and operated by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) in Taytay, Rizal, has yet to be completed.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) issued this statement as its franchise area, particularly the eastern portion, is affected by the shutdown of the substation.
Meralco started rotating power interruptions Thursday morning following the outage of all the transformer banks at the Dolores substation Wednesday night.
As of 11 a.m. yesterday, the Dolores substation has yet to be fully restored.
As a result, two-hour rotating power interruptions were implemented in the following circuits and the respective areas covered by them: Marikina 53VG – Barangays Burgos, Mangahan, Bulubok, San Rafael, San Isidro, Geronimo, San Rafael, San Jose, and Wawa in Marikina City; Dolores 43XM – Barangays San Isidro and San Juan in Cainta, Rizal, Barangays Dolores and San Isidro in Taytay, Rizal; Dolores 48XM – Barangay San Juan in Cainta, Barangays San Juan, Sta. Ana, Dolores and San Isidro in Taytay; Dolores 45XM – portions of Antipolo, including Barangays Dalig, Sitio Tubigan, San Jose, San Luis, Sitios Parungan and Maguey, portions of Taytay, including Barangays Kaytikling and Dolores; Marikina 45VG – Barangay Loyola Heights in Quezon City, portions of Barangays Tañong, Jesus dela Peña, Barangka, Sta. Elena and Sto. Niño in Marikina City, including Industrial Valley Subdivision; and Masinag 43WN – Barangay Mambugan in Antipolo City.
Other areas might also experience power interruptions later in the day depending on the capacity of the system to cope with demand.
In an earlier statement, Meralco said that it had already sent crews to NGCP’s Dolores substation to help in the restoration of the damaged power transformer.
The company added that given the limited supply of power it is receiving at the moment, it is doing its best to manage the distribution of power to be able to reduce the duration of outages.
For its part, the NGCP said it already energized one 300-mega voltage ampere (MVA) transformer at Dolores substation as of 3:27 p.m. yesterday through the Dolores-San Jose 230-KV line.
In a separate statement, it said the transformer was loaded and connected to the Luzon grid at 7:44 a.m.
The substation now gives 150 megawatts of power to Meralco.
“We will update you once a second transformer unit has been restored,” it said.