GLOBAL BUSINESS Power Corp. (GBP) announced on Tuesday that it has inked a partnership with the local government of Iloilo City for a P15-million joint development project.
GBP, through its subsidiaries, Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) and Panay Power Corp. (PPC), will develop La Paz Plaza in the center of the city starting January and is targeted for completion by June.
Located within GBP’s two adopted barangays in Divinagracia and Lopez Jaena Norte, the improvement of the park is intended to promote the La Paz Plaza as a cultural and tourism spot, the company said in a statement.
“We sincerely hope that through this development project, we can be of assistance in elevating the La Paz Plaza as a modern recreation area for culture and sports, wherein residents and tourists could enjoy, unwind and nurture creativity,” GBP President Jaime T. Azurin said in a statement.
The project is seen to turn the plaza lagoon into a “Blue Koi Lagoon” and build a “Green Butterfly Garden” with the goal of promoting the public space as a cultural and tourism spot.
The generation giant also donated seedlings of Dungon, a kind of timber tree, to boost the mangrove species within the La Paz area and to help restore several waterway and rivers traversing the city.
GBP has four power plants in Iloilo City: two coal plants with a total of 314 megawatts (MW) in capacity and two fuel oil plants with a 92-MW capacity. It has a total capacity of 1,091 MW with 13 power plants across the Visayas and Mindanao.
GBP is owned by Meralco PowerGen Corp. of the Meralco Group. Manila Electric Co.’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT, Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — M.C. Lucenio
