SOCIAL development foundation Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) calls on companies and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practitioners to band together to form collective solutions to problems faced by the Philippines.
“No one member corporation can say that we have this solution to all the problems we see in the world. One single focus will not solve all of our problems. Our solutions are better if done collectively with other groups. Every problem is best solved if we come to work together,” said PBSP president Br. Armin Luistro.
Luistro laid out PBSP’s five-year roadmap of “scaling up solutions together” as the organization moves to its 50th year in 2021.
“We look at improved corporate citizenship practice that builds self-reliant and resilient communities with improved quality of life,” he said during the PBSP 29th Visayas Annual Membership Meeting (VAMM) at the Casino Español de Cebu.
PBSP executive director Reynaldo Antonio Laguda said a collective action will hopefully help address solutions to the same problems that are being addressed year after year.
“Human beings finding and resonating in the fact that there is deeper to address long-term societal issues,” said Laguda.
Self reliant
PBSP is a 46-year-old organization established at the height of Martial Law in the early ’70s.
“We are looking at solutions that are not quick answers to the problems that we have. Self-reliant communities are part of the vision that PBSP has set for itself,” said Luistro, former secretary of the Department of Education.
Luistro said there is no other organization in the Philippines and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region where businessmen and women, who normally compete with each other, decide to work together and come up with sustainable solutions.
Lawyer Manuel del Rosario, senior vice president for human resources and corporate affairs of the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. and PBSP Visayas executive committee member, said they have supported via socio-economic projects over a million households in the country in 2015 and 2016, using pooled fund of more than P76 million from 263 member-companies and P2 billion from donor agencies and partners.
Del Rosario said this ensured the continuity of health, environment, education and livelihood projects in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
In the Visayas, PBSP has presence in Bohol, Cebu, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Samar and Leyte where more than 2,000 women become healthier and wiser mothers under the safe motherhood project.
PBSP also supported 2,610 pupils and high school students from 20 public schools and rehabilitated over 100 hectares with forest trees and mangroves.
“We supported seaweed farmers and provided sustainable gardening to people who are still recovering from the effects of Super Typhoon Yolanda,” said Del Rosario.
Featured in yesterday’s event were sustainable solutions of different companies in the fields of education, health, environment and livelihood.
One of them is the Balik-Baterya program of Oriental and Motolite Marketing Corporation (OMMC), which advocates for proper recycling and disposal of used lead acid batteries (ULABs), which were bought by OMMC from companies, in partnership with Philippine Recyclers Inc.
Proceeds of the sales fund the establishment of learning resource centers or mini-libraries.
Inquirer brand ambassador Raquel Choa of Ralfe Gourmet and The Chocolate Chamber also presented their story in uplifting the image of Philippine-made chocolates.
Also featured yesterday were the stories of Unionbank of the Philippines and Wellmade Motors and Development Corp.
Yesterday’s VAMM also recognized two new PBSP members: Innoland Development Corp. and GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation.