Corporate-led group launches projects

AS it strengthens its effort to unify the business sector to help alleviate the lives of the poor, a corporate-led social development foundation has launched new projects and inducted new members.

The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), during its 22nd Visayas Annual Membership Meeting Wednesday launched three new environment projects that cover the coasts, land, and air.

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Philip Tan, president of Wellmade Motors and Development Corporation, a member company of PBSP, said the three projects, which will cost P52 million, will be implemented in the Visayas region in the next five years.

PBSP’s first project involves a collaborative coastal resource management program that seeks to restore the seas and coastal resources destroyed by illegal fishing.

Tan said that the European Union has given P32 million to PBSP for the project that will cover Cebu, Bohol, Guimaras, Olango Island, Samar and Leyte.

PBSP’s second project is the P19.4 million Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) Reforestation Project that seeks to plant one million trees in 540 hectares of hillyland in Cebu and 10 hectares of mangrove in Mactan.

The third PBSP’s project is the establishment of 22 learning centers in the Visayas through the help of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) in partnership with Oriental Motolite and Marketing Co.

Tan said the 22 learning centers will serve as a symbol of the PBSP’s 22 years of service in the region.

Veco, PLDT and Motolite are all member-companies of PBSP.

Jose Antonio Aboitiz, PBSP Visayas chairman, said that through the projects, they hope to help the Philippine government in attaining the United Nations Millenium Development Goal by 2015.

“We want better life for the people from 2010 onwards. We want stable income for farmers, fisher folk and urban poor, better learning opportunity for our children, better health care, and a conserved environment that nurtures community,” said Aboitiz

The PBSP also inducted Wednesday 11 new member companies. The PBSP now has 261 member companies, 71 of which come from Visayas.