Roxas Holdings to help clean up river in Negros Occidental

ROXAS Holdings, Inc. (RHI) said it supports the environmental campaign of the local government of Pontevedra, Negros Occidental, with a commitment to help clean up the San Juan River.

“We are glad that the local government understands that we are addressing environmental concerns, and that we are exerting every effort to ensure that human health is not affected,” RHI’s EVP/COO for Ethanol Luis O. Villa-Abrille said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company’s ethanol plant Roxol Bioenergy Corp. makes the rounds of communities and cooperates with the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office to ensure that its operations do not pollute the area.

The ethanol plant has commissioned two 5,000 cubic-meter anaerobic digesters to add to two with 10,000 cubic-meter capacity to improve its wastewater management.

In September, the company voluntarily suspended operations to address allegations from the local government that the bioethanol producer is the source of a foul odor that alarmed nearby communities, an issue which has been resolved.

Shares in Roxas Holdings traded Tuesday at P5.00, up 0.20%.

First Pacific Co. Ltd., majority owner of RHI, partly owns Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, to which it controls. —