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Thursday, February 23, 2006
GMA commends group for helping poor folks
By Aurelia l. Castro
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
President Arroyo commended yesterday the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) for going “out of their comfort zone” to help eradicate poverty in the country.
“I want to tell you that the Filipino people appreciate what you are doing,” she told PBSP Visayas members present during the organization’s 18th annual membership meeting at the Casino Español de Cebu.
PBSP is a corporate-led social development foundation that promotes business sector leadership in social development.
It has 203 company-members and has provided over P5 billion in financial assistance that supported over 5,000 projects, which benefited close to 2.9 million poor Filipino households in 65 provinces.
Arroyo said it was “fitting” that PBSP Visayas held its meeting on the 20th anniversary of Edsa 1.
Justice
“You demonstrate the transformed and mature fight for economic and social justice since Edsa 1. You create positive change without going outside of the system,” she said during her keynote address.
Political revolution without economic revolution is meaningless, she said.
She added that the country is now embracing a modern economy model that invests in people to make the nation stronger.
“Our peso is getting stronger and stronger, investments have picked up, and savings increased and there is a rising business outlook. Tourism is also up and the stock market remains bullish,” she said.
Of the 2.5 million tourists that came to the country last year, half of them visited the Visayas, she said.
Stability
The government’s vision is to achieve permanent political and economic stability, she stressed.
“Let us continue the fight against poverty. That is the legacy of Edsa 1 — to free people from poverty,” she said.
PBSP Visayas executive committee chair John Domingo said PBSP is proactive in encouraging the participation of the business sector in social development.
“Thirty percent of the country’s more than 85 million people are not able to demonstrate their full potential because of unemployment, lack of access to social services like education and healthcare, among others,” he said.
PBSP Visayas implements projects that aim to reduce poverty and promote corporate social responsibility. It has poverty reduction programs in the provinces of Bohol, Cebu and Samar.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 23, 2006 issue)
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