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Friday, March 29, 2024

Making education accessible

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For over 50 years, the Alcantara group has steadfastly shown its commitment to Mindanao, investing in various industries such as property development, agribusiness and aquaculture, and power generation via the Alsons Power Group.

A focus of the  company’s corporate citizenship efforts is in the area of education, with  Alsons Power helping to secure the future of the brightest academic performers in select schools in Mindanao by providing automatic scholarship grants for each school’s top 10 honor students. Considering the increasing school dropout rate in the last three years, this initiative is giving students from the poorest sectors have a shot at improving their lot in life.  

For school year 2016-2017, 200 scholars will be able to continue their high school and college education, thanks to Alsons’ scholarship program.

Alsons Power Group provides automatic scholarship grants to the brightest students of Mindanao, among them honor students of Rogaya Bajunaid Integrated School at Maasim, Sarangani which include (3rd from left) Marlon Batua, Laila Abas and Amier Mula. Joining them are (from left) school principal Eduardo Edulza, Sarangani Energy Corp. HRA and Project Assurance head Joel Aton

According to Ruben Tungpalan, Alsons Power’s Corporate Affairs and Community Relations head, “It has always been Alsons’ vision to help raise communities where education is within reach. It is our firm belief that education plays a vital role in poverty alleviation and community development. As such, Alsons will continue to champion it in areas where we are present.” 

Since 2004, over 4,000 honor students have benefited from the scholarship program. These beneficiaries are from within and around the areas where the group’s various power facilities are located, such as the Southern Philippines Power Corporation (SPPC) in Alabel, Sarangani Province; the Sarangani Energy Corp. (SEC) in Maasim, Sarangani Province; and the Western Mindanao Power Corporation (WMPC) and the San Ramon Power Inc. (SRPI) in Zamboanga City.

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Apart from the scholarship program, Alsons Power also provides education-related infrastructure. To date, over 30 fully furnished classrooms, libraries and laboratory buildings with built-in toilet facilities have been constructed and donated to various schools throughout Zamboanga City and Sarangani Province. The fully furnished classrooms are equipped with armchairs and book trays, while the laboratory and library buildings are equipped with computers and furniture.

Committed to provide safe, reliable and affordable power to the people of Mindanao and the rest of the country, the Alsons Power Group is expected to generate 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.

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