Back to school bayanihan: AboitizPower gives a helping hand to students and teachers returning to the classroom

Moved by the belief that Filipino students and their teachers should be in a safe and modern learning environment, Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower) is helping meet the needs of some local public schools across the country.

Since 2010, Visayan Electric Company, Inc. (Visayan Electric), an AboitizPower distribution utility, has embarked on a school rewiring project together with Aboitiz Foundation Inc. to replace outdated electrical wiring systems in public schools within its franchise area. Visayan Electric serves the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay, and Naga, and the municipalities of Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanilla, and San Fernando.

For over a decade, Visayan Electric’s own engineers have allocated at least two weekends every year to do the rewiring themselves, conforming with industry standards and significantly reducing the risk of fire hazards and electrocution accidents.

To date, a total of 5,311 classrooms and school facilities — equivalent to 146 public elementary and high schools — have been fully rewired to modern standards. The program continues in 2024, with seven schools chosen as beneficiaries.

Supplementing the effort, Visayan Electric also supports the Department of Education’s Brigada Eskwela program, a nationwide initiative to prepare public schools for a new school year, by annually mobilizing its team member volunteers and resources to help repair damaged school facilities, as well as clean and repaint classrooms and common areas.

Like Visayan Electric, Subic EnerZone is also set to elevate its contributions through a Brigada Eskwela Plus! Beyond the usual painting and cleaning initiatives, Subic EnerZone will also check the electrical system and repair the computer laboratory of their adopted school. The Company will also do a workshop on basic electrical information, electrical safety, and energy saving tips.

AboitizPower’s Subic EnerZone operates the distribution systems of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, covering Zambales and Bataan.

Corporate social responsibility

Other AboitizPower business units have also exercised their corporate social responsibility to schools within their selected communities.

For the coming school year, Cotabato Light and Power Company (Cotabato Light) will also engage in Brigada Eskwela by providing material support and helping repair and clean an elementary school in Cotabato. Cotabato Light provides electric power to Cotabato City, including the surrounding municipalities of Datu Odin Sinsuat and Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao.

To encourage interest in the power sector and expand opportunities in the area, the AboitizPower distribution utility will also give financial assistance to underprivileged high school students taking the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics or STEM strand. Grade 12 students will also be offered an opportunity to participate in a work immersion program within Cotabato Light.

Meanwhile, Hedcor, a renewable energy subsidiary of AboitizPower, also lent its support to the Brigada Eskwela program by financing the repainting and cleaning of classrooms, the repair of desks and chairs, the restoration of facilities, and the enhancement of safety in selected schools within its host communities in the Cordilleras. Hedcor also organized skills-sharing and capacity-building workshops for the teachers and staff on maintenance, repairs, and information technology literacy.

In La Trinidad, Benguet, Hedcor supplied classroom materials, cookery essentials, and sports equipment and athletic gear to four different schools to encourage its students to pursue home economics and extracurricular activities. In several schools in Sabangan, Mountain Province, Hedcor donated Smart TVs to make the classroom more interactive and engaging.

With the same intention, Advent Energy, Inc. (AdventEnergy), together with its retail electricity customer Pascual Laboratories, donated a Knowledge TV, a portable media player, and other learning equipment to an elementary school in Balagtas, Bulacan. AdventEnergy is an AboitizPower subsidiary engaged in the business of a retail energy supplier.

At the same time, through an adopt-a-school program, San Carlos Sun Power Inc. (SacaSun) and the Aboitiz Foundation donated much-needed equipment — including solar lamps, a water tank, bunk beds, canopy tents, and cement — to an elementary school in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. Located in a remote area, the school identified the items as among those needed by its teachers, some of whom stay overnight and spend most of the week in the school.

SacaSun is AboitizPower’s first solar power plant venture, operating with a 59 MWp utility-scale solar photovoltaic facility in San Carlos City.

With the collective resources and efforts of its business units in the grassroots, AboitizPower helps ensure that classrooms are well-equipped and the future of the students are set bright.