SN Aboitiz Power Group Community

Synergies with host communities

November 26, 2024

Within a community, every person or group of people impacts each other; after all, they reside and operate within the same ecosystem. Hence, it is only ideal that they should look after each other, establishing relationships that make the benefits greater than the sum of its parts when all the generated value from fellowship and synergy is accounted for.

As an operator of power plants and power distribution assets spread across the country, AboitizPower is aware that it does have an impact, and so it strives to be regarded as a positive catalyst to the communities that host its operations. To that end, it constantly strives to further elevate and maximize its positives while minimizing the negatives, so that it is a valued member of the community, as opposed to being merely tolerated or, worse, ignored or even hated.

For example, take the Magat multi-purpose facility in Ramon, Isabela and Alfonso Lista, Ifugao, which in some ways encapsulates the many host communities that AboitizPower is a part of.

The elements are there. First, Magat has resources that underpin a lot of the activities in the area — the land, dam, and reservoir for farming and irrigation, fishing, flood control, and power generation. Second, it contains a power generation facility — the SNAP-Magat hydropower plant. Third, there is government presence as they own and maintain the non-power components in Magat. Fourth, there are residents and families who rely on the facility.

All of them exist together interdependently, with AboitizPower and SNAP even having a hand in the early development of some livelihood projects that have proven to be sustainable. In Magat, the Natigpunan Fisherfolk Women’s Association — co-users of the reservoir — received the seed capital for its Tilapia fish processing area and store from SNAP, setting them up to benefit from what is around them for years to come.

Elsewhere in Ifugao, AboitizPower, SNAP-Magat, and the host province also came together to use their collective resources and transform idle cogon land into lands for produce under the Livelihood, Enterprise, and Agro-forest Development (LEAD) project. Particularly, in the town of Lagawe in the Cordillera Mountains, LEAD helped Ifugao farmers become growers of rich Arabica and Robusta coffee beans, supporting them through the early processes of trial and error. Today, Ifugao Kape Coffee Products are sold, served, and enjoyed in various shops in the Cordillera region, and these Ifugao coffee growers can stand on their own.

While power generation, agrifishery, and coffee-growing don’t necessarily have direct “business” relationships, the fact that the livelihoods of the SNAP-Magat hydropower plant and the fisherfolk and farmers are tied to the same water and land reinforces how much they both need each other to prosper.

It is the locals who give AboitizPower and SNAP-Magat their “social license to operate”. Hence, it is AboitizPower’s and SNAP-Magat’s goal to be considered a valued member of the community since that would ensure the sustainability of its operations; doing so by having the shared prosperity of its host communities in mind. AboitizPower doesn’t just invest in energy security and the energy system of the future, but also in people and the communities near its operations, empowering them to build brighter futures for many more.

AboitizPower knows that the SNAP-Magat power plant can be wielded to achieve socio-economic goals or the needs of the locals in particular. Localities are made more competitive and attractive to investors when there are reliable utilities in the vicinity as it can support infrastructural and technological development, as well as industrial growth. Local governments would also have more capacity since more progress would translate to more taxes.

More directly, the power plant provides jobs and adjacent livelihoods to locals, who also stand to benefit from corporate social responsibility initiatives like those mentioned above and community shares like the ER 1-94. Mandated by the government, ER 1-94 lets host communities receive one centavo for every kilowatt-hour (P0.01/kWh) of electricity generated, giving them a reasonable share of the power plant profits to fund healthcare, reforestation, livelihood, and rural electrification.

In a community, nurturing fellowship and synergy do not happen overnight. The act of nurturing takes a long time. It also does not happen in isolation, but rather in collaboration. When there is fellowship and synergy in the community, good things can happen, as what transpired with AboitizPower, the folks at Magat dam, and the province of Ifugao who opened and shared their community.

With the idea that each person and group of people have a stake in each other’s future, all stakeholders must work together and understand how one can look after the other. The potential for fellowship and synergy is there. Everyone can become better off.

This article is written by Suiee Suarez, AboitizPower Vice President for Corporate Affairs.