Press Release

Residents of Negros Oriental will no longer have to worry about paying for expensive fees to avail of the gold standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for COVID-19.This benefit comes from the provincial government’s decision to allocate the P18 million worth of total remittances that it received from the Department of Energy (DOE), from Lopez-led renewable energy leader Energy Development Corporation (EDC) and from its power subsidiary Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI), as part of its Energy Regulations (ER) No. 1-94 funds.The fund is part of the province’s Energy Regulations (ER) No. 1-94 benefit as host to EDC’s 222.5 megawatts (MW) Southern Negros geothermal facility, including its Green Core Geothermal, Inc. (GCGI) subsidiary in Valencia, Negros O...

Teleperformance Philippines renews its commitment to the planet as it pledges to do monthly switch-offs of non-essential lights in all 22 of its business sites nationwide this 2021.The pledge was announced at its recent “Let’s Change the World” Citizen of the World (COTW) Meet-up, which shared updates on current advocacy projects of Teleperformance. The townhall, also held in celebration of Earth Hour, included special guest World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines Ambassador Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski.“As we work to help bring awareness around environmental sustainability and, in addition to this commemoration this month, we at Teleperformance also commit to have an Earth Hour every single month. So for one hour every single month, we will switch off our lights for the rest of t...

Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año has commended the functional and efficient response efforts of Bacolod City against COVID-19 through its Emergency Operations Center."The DILG commends the efforts of the local government of Bacolod City in ensuring the functionality and efficiency of its EOC," Año said in his letter to Mayor Evelio Leonardia dated April 26, a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office said Tuesday, May 4.“It is heartwarming to receive this commendation, which is richly deserved by our government workers and volunteers working so hard at the EOC and its various service clusters”, Leonardia said.“While Secretary Año was primarily referring to how we contained the spike in COVID cases during those critical days last September 2020, it is still ...

EDC’s 112.5MW Palinpinon-1 geothermal power plant in Valencia, Negros Oriental has been supplying clean, renewable 24/7 power to Negros and other parts of Luzon and Visayas for over 37 years.On this same day 45 years ago, Lopez-led geothermal leader Energy Development Corporation (EDC) was established to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuels by harnessing indigenous power primarily from geothermal sources.Fast forward to today, EDC continues to live up to its mandate to generate low carbon, clean power and may have expanded its portfolio to include solar, wind, and hydro but geothermal remains as its core business.“Our country needs a reliable, stable source of clean, renewable power, which only geothermal energy or Geo 24/7, can provide to power the economy and low...

The Social Security System (SSS) released the second batch of February 2021 pensions on February 16, 2021 amounting to P5.2 billion, through the Philippine Electronic Fund Transfer System and Operations Network (PESONet) and other checkless disbursement channels.The pension fund—which will benefit 1.1 million pensioners whose dates of contingency are from the 16th to the last day of the month—was released through PESONet participating banks, e-wallets, and M Lhuillier branches.Pensioners covered by the said batch can withdraw their pensions starting February 16 and onwards.The first batch for the February 2021 pensions—with a total amount of P6.5 billion—was released on February 1, 2021, through the same disbursement method. Covered in the first batch are some 1.5 million pensi...

Uratex Philippines and POS Home – TLPJ Marketing Inc. recently turned over 22 bed mattresses to the Immaculate Concepcion Health Center in Victorias City.The health center was affected twice by flashfloods that hit northern Negros last month.All of the mattresses were submerged in floodwaters and it would be unhygienic to use them, hospital administrator Ann Rose Gicana said.“The foul smell was intolerable,” she said, adding that they have no choice but to change them all. Already struggling since the pandemic started, Gicana said, this posed another financial challenge on the foundation.When the center’s plight was brought to the attention of POS Home manager Patricia Liza, she immediately solicited the assistance of manufacturer Uratex which promptly agreed to replace all...

Some of SM Foundation’s scholars at the General Assembly in 2019.Since 1993, SM Foundation (SMFI) has been helping deserving and qualified students from low-income households earn their bachelor’s degrees or advance in technical-vocational studies. To date, the SM College Scholarship Program has helped 5,500 scholars nationwide reach their dream of completing their studies.  This scholarship program started from the vision of the late SM patriarch, Henry “Tatang” Sy, Sr. He believed that if you send one child from an economically challenged family to college, that child would have more opportunities to have gainful employment and later on help his/ her siblings or uplift the economic status of their family. The foundation is now inviting incoming college freshmen...

Teleperformance Philippines recently launched a new learning platform to hone the talent and knowledge of its professional teams who are helping to drive the digital transformation journeys for both domestic and global clients.The Teleperformance Automation Academy is an expert-facilitated mentorship program for learning, incubating, developing, and deploying Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions.These RPA solutions are software bots that automate repetitive, high-volume tasks by using a combination of automation, computer vision, and machine learning.The academy’s participants are people recognized and nominated by their line leaders for their experience in project management and client-program relations. These can include account team leaders, project managers, and membe...

The Social Security System (SSS) announced that the first batch of January 2021 pensions was released on Tuesday, December 29, through the Philippine Electronic Fund Transfer System and Operations Network (PESONet) and other checkless disbursement channels.Pensioners whose date of contingency is from the first to the 15th day of the month and are receiving their pensions through PESONet participating banks, e-wallets such as PayMaya, or M Lhuillier, can expect that their January 2021 pensions will be credited to their accounts and may be withdrawn starting Tuesday, December 29.The first batch of January 2021 pension releases covers 1.5 million pensioners with combined pensions for the month, amounting to P6.3 billion.The SSS understands that pensioners rely on their SSS pension...