DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Dec. 23 (PIA) -- Employees of Energy Development Corporation (EDC) moved to provide disaster relief to its host communities in Valencia and in Typhoon Odette-stricken far-flung areas in Bais City and Manjuyod town.

EDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team in Negros Island has been coordinating with the municipality of Valencia on possible assistance that the company can provide to its communities in barangays Caidiocan, Malaunay, and Puhagan even before the typhoon made a landfall in the province last week,

“While our Field Operations and Maintenance team worked to typhoon- proof our geothermal facilities, we worked together with our partner communities as first responders and with Valencia Mayor Edgar Teves and his team in preparation for possible natural calamities like this. I believe that we’re ready,” said Norreen Bautista, head of EDC’s CSR Team in Negros Island.

EDC distributed 50 raincoats to the Municipality of Valencia’s Barangay Health Emergency Team and Community-based Task Force, which helped as they prepared, proactively did site inspection, and warned the residents about the impact of Typhoon Odette.

Some residents were likewise evacuated. 

Guided by weather forecast data from IBM’s The Weather Company (TWC), EDC’s Negros Task Force Odette sprang into action and made the necessary preparations to ensure the safety of its employees and even its contractors, especially those who are working on site, as well as its power plants in Valencia.

Throughout the years, EDC has invested on the typhoon-proofing of its geothermal assets.

EDC's facilities were minimally affected, with simple repairs that needed to be done to the guard house and a few doors.

All the units of its Southern Negros Geothermal Project were able to go back online by Dec. 21.

EDC also worked closely with Negros Oriental 1 Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NORECO 1) and Negros Oriental 2 Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NORECO II) as well as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to restore power back to the localities.

Two boom trucks were lent to NORECO II to enable them to restore their power lines in Tanjay City and in other areas at the quickest possible time.

“Being safe and having minimal damage to our power plants allowed us, EDC employees, to focus more on helping those that were affected by typhoon Odette and on clearing roads in Valencia,” Bautista said.

For instance, EDC’s Shared Services team responded swiftly by clearing road blockages (fallen trees, debris and rocks), including the landslide at Mag-Aso in Valencia, and have made some roads passable.

EDC also provided access to its site for Brgy. Puhagan residents while residents of barangays Caidiocan and Malaunay were given access to its guardhouse at the Ticala Admin Complex to enable them to charge their communication devices (e.g. mobile phones, radios, etc.).

As the company continues to assess the assistance that it can provide to these three barangays, it knows that there are worst-hit areas in the Northern part of Negros Oriental that experienced signal no. 4 last weekend.

For this, EDC mobilized other employee-volunteers and called for fully vaccinated volunteers from its Sikat scholars and BINHI Youth Champions to assemble an initial 700 sets of relief packs composed of canned goods, noodles, milk, and coffee for the residents of Bais City and Manjuyod.

Used clothes, blankets, towels, and mats were likewise sorted and packed for them.

Negros employees willingly cancelled their virtual Christmas party to divert the funds for the event amounting to P20,000 to its relief operations.

Bautista’s team and other volunteers are scheduled to distribute these grocery bags and other items to the typhoon victims in Bais City and Manjuyod on Dec. 22. (JCT/PIA7 Negros Oriental with reports from Frances Ariola of EDC)