First Gen to transform Batangas dumpsite into an eco-park

MANILA, Philippines — Lopez-led First Gen Corp. has teamed up with the local government of Batangas City to rehabilitate a closed garbage dumpsite into a recreation park and wildlife rescue center.

First Gen vice president Ramon Araneta signed a memorandum of agreement with Batangas City Mayor Beverley Rose Dimacuha to become a “partner adoptor” in the local government undertaking, called Batangas City Eco-Park and Wildlife Rescue Center Project (Eco-Park Project).

The Batangas City local government will develop the project through partnerships and commitments with private companies or partner adopters that have agreed to adopt and undertake specific components of the Eco-Park Project.

As one of the partner adopters, First Gen’s initial commitments to the project include donating construction materials for the site’s walkway and hundreds of tree-growing endemic hardwood saplings that it will plant and nurture. Other First Gen commitments for the eco-park are being finalized.

These First Gen undertakings will be opened and maintained by the company in a park area, which will be called “First Gen Regenerative Projects” and which will showcase the company’s various programs to enhance the environment.

Under the Eco-Park Project, the local government will turn the city’s old, two-hectare dumpsite into a recreational area for residents and tourists, as well as a sanctuary for rescued animals.

Facilities for animals that will open inside the Eco-Park Project will include an aviary, a serpentarium, a turtle pond, a fishpond, a monkey trail, an animal care center, and wildlife hospital.

Like its parent firm First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH), First Gen said it has a long history and a strong advocacy for the environment, encapsulated in the group’s mission, “forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.”

This includes its fight against adverse and destructive climate change.

As part of the advocacy, FPH declared in 2016 that it would not build, develop, or invest in any power plant that runs on coal, a fossil fuel with intensive content of carbon dioxide whose release to the atmosphere contributes significantly to climate change.

FPH’s advocacy explains why First Gen power plants run either on renewable energy sources, such as hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind; or on natural gas, considered the cleanest fossil fuel. These plants have a total installed capacity of 3,492 megawatts (MW).

Batangas City hosts all of First Gen’s natural gas-fired power plants with an installed capacity of almost 2,000 MW.