THE Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a business-led organization, recently donated to the military a P30-million water filtration system to aid soldiers and communities in Mindanao.

Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief, received the mobile water filtration system and its testing equipment and chemicals from Reynaldo Antonio Laguda, PBSP executive director.

Members of the PBSP and troops of the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion demonstrated the use of the water filtration system during the turnover on January 21 at Camp General Arturo Enrile in the village of Malagutay, Zamboanga City.

Laguda said the donation is a way to repay soldiers operating on the ground and

aid poor communities by delivering their basic needs.

“This mobile water system will help poor communities in Mindanao gain easy access to potable water, which is a necessity for living,” Lieutenant General Felimon Santos, Jr., Armed Forces chief-of-staff, said in a statement read by Sobejana during the turnover ceremony.

The mobile water filtration system is capable of treating 20 cubic meters of salty and brackish waters into potable water.

Lieutenant Colonel William Upano, chief of the 9th Forward Service Support Unit (9FSSU), said the water treatment equipment will be deployed in Sulu.

Upano said the equipment will be of big help to the troops in the field as well as the communities they serve especially in areas where potable water is scarce. (SunStar Zamboanga)