The BioPower Group with its shareholder and project sponsor European investment firm ThomasLloyd are donating over P5 million worth of goods for the fight against COVID-19 in the province of Negros Occidental.
The initiative aims to help ensure the protection of medical frontliners and provide much-needed supplies to hospitals and local government units.
“ThomasLloyd is proud to stand side by side with our local partners and all of the people of Negros Occidental, as we face the challenge of the pandemic. Together, we will come through this successfully,’’ said Michael Airey, managing director of ThomasLloyd Group Ltd. in a statement.
BioPower and ThomasLloyd’s initial response includes providing thousands of full protective suits, face shields, gloves, N95 masks, surgical masks, goggles, shoe covers, alcohol, disinfectants and packed food items for medical front-liners in Negros hospitals and LGU efforts.
One of the group’s facilities was converted into a warehouse to properly consolidate, inspect and redistribute goods.
“Our greatest asset is our people, having more than a thousand three hundred regular employees spread out in three biomass power plants and eight operational transloading stations in Negros Occidental,” Arthur Aguilar, BioPower Group president, said.
“The three Biopower companies have the largest combined agricultural equipment fleet in the country deployed from Cadiz to Isabela so we took advantage of our widespread Negros footprint to coordinate with Hospitals, LGUs concerned, down to the barangay level and provide relief where most needed,” Aguilar said.
The BioPower Group last year completed three biomass power plants fueled by sugarcane field residues in Negros island with a combined capacity of 70 megawatts and total investments of P16 billion.
The three projects are waiting for the endorsement of the Energy Department to avail of the FIT.
The FIT under the Renewable Energy Law of 2008 guarantees all eligible renewable energy plants to the applicable FIT for a period of 20 years.
Aside from working with the provincial government and Bacolod City government, ThomasLloyd and the BioPower Group through their companies, namely San Carlos BioPower Inc., South Negros BioPower Inc. and North Negros BioPower Inc., provided PPEs and assisted community response efforts to San Carlos City, La Carlota City, Sagay City, Cadiz City, Silay City, Bago City, Escalante City and the municipalities of Manapla, Isabela, Himamaylan and Hinigiran. BioPower’s ambulances were dispatched to support LGU efforts while also providing urgent community announcements in barangays.
ThomasLloyd and BioPower are providing medical equipment and other support items such as Video Laryngoscopes, PPEs and masks to designated COVID hospitals, such as Cadiz City District Hospital, Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and Queen of Mercy Hospital in Bacolod City.
Other medical facilities being supported are Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital, a designated quarantine center in E.B. Magalona, and Bacolod City’s isolation facilities where beds, mattresses and pillows were also donated.
Part of the donation will be allocated to provide Bacolod City’s second Mobile Swabbing Unit. Thomas Lloyd and BioPower offered P1 million to the provincial government of Negros Occidental that will likely go to support the procurement of additional Antibody Rapid Testing Kits.
The group is working with Negrense Volunteers for Change Foundation Inc. and the St. Scholastica's Bacolod Alumnae Foundation Inc. to encourage co-donors to expand current relief efforts in the Province.
“Our group partnered with these two Foundations to intensify our COMBAT COVID-19 campaign and sustain our commitment to support the critical needs of especially of those in the front lines. Another goal of this program is to support the Province’s aim to build its own accredited COVID-19 PCR testing facility,” Aguilar said.