Great PH Merger for Social Dev’t: PNoy to grace PBSP 40th gala
Called the Great Philippine Merger for Social Development, the gala event will be a top billing of the chairpersons and CEOs representing more than 200 PBSP member companies all over the country, as well as members of the international donor community.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of the PBSP board of trustees, will lead four other trustees in presenting their symbolic renewal to the President of their commitment to the national development agenda, primarily in PBSP’s four pillars or key areas.
The four trustees will act as the PBSP board champions of the four focus areas of health, education, livelihood and enterprise development, and the environment.
PBSP, the nation’s oldest and largest business group into social development, is the first of its kind in Asia as a corporate-driven development foundation. Since 1970, PBSP has been the country’s pioneer in corporate citizenship and social responsibility practices.
After four decades, PBSP was able to deliver more than 6,500 projects worth a total 5.2 billion pesos benefiting and uplifting the lives of at least 6.4 million Filipinos.
In the past 40 years, PBSP has been at the forefront of poverty reduction initiatives as well as social development programs on health, primarily on tuberculosis, and on basic education, particularly in facilitating the provision of textbooks, tables and armchairs, and school buildings.
Other PBSP initiatives have included programs on small business advisory and livelihood enterprise development as well as on the environment, including farmland area resource and coastal resource management, disaster coordination and risk reduction, and caring for the rainforests and watersheds.
Between 2009 and 2010, PBSP corporate membership contribution alone grew by as much as 46 percent. Moreover, PBSP is the recipient of over 43.7 million euros or more than 2.3 billion pesos from the Global Fund to fight tuberculosis in the country.
At the gala, PBSP pioneers to be honored include Washington Sycip, Sixto Roxas III, and Ambassadors Howard Dee, Jose M. Soriano, and Emilio Abello Sr. (posthumous), considered the father of green energy in the country.
Ma. Luisa Perez-Rubio and Amb. Bienvenido Tan Jr. will be recognized for their active service, while Angelo King will be feted with an audio visual tribute.
History
Among those who pioneered PBSP in 1970 were Wash Sycip of accounting firm SGV, Ting Roxas, Andres Soriano Jr. of San Miguel Corp., and soon-to-be future envoys Jose Soriano of Atlas Consolidated Mining, Howard Dee of pharmaceutical firm United Laboratories, Bienvenido Tan Jr. of Phil. Tobacco and Modern Glass, and Don Emilio Abello of Meralco.
Jose Soriano would later be elected PBSP’s first chairman, while former PBSP executive director Ernesto D. Garilao would later become secretary of agrarian reform within two decades.
Another PBSP pioneer in 1970 was Shell Corporation Phils. executive Luzio Mazzei, the Venezuelan national who was crucial in arranging an exchange visit between Philippine business leaders and the head of the Venezuelan foundation Dividendo Voluntario para la Comunidad, which became the model for PBSP.
After the PBSP pioneers’ visit to Venezuela, the executive director of Dividendo was invited to the Philippines to share his knowledge and expertise.
PBSP pioneers, inspired by the 1963 Dividendo model from a group of Venezuelan industrialists, would later adopt the member contribution of one percent of business income before tax for programs on corporate social responsibility.
Under the plan, member companies would pledge 1 percent of their net income before tax for social development work. Of this, 60 percent would be given to the foundation and the remaining 40 percent they would retain for their own social development activities.
Within PBSP’s first year alone, member-companies increased from 50 to 137. By mid-2010, PBSP peaked at a membership of 263.
Other queries may be addressed to:
Philippine Business for Social Progress’ Communication Unit
PSDC Building, Magallanes corner Real Streets
Intramuros 1002 Manila
Tel: 527-3741 Fax: 527-3743 Email: pbsp@pbsp.org.ph
About the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP)
Committed to poverty reduction, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) is the largest corporate-led social development foundation in the Philippines. PBSP is the first of its kind in Asia leading the promotion and practice of corporate citizenship. PBSP has been influencing companies to integrate social responsibility into their core businesses, and advocating the application of business solutions to poverty.
More than 260 large, medium-scale and small businesses comprise PBSP. Together, PBSP members help the poor rise above poverty and become self-reliant.
PBSP operates nationwide, with programs in Education, Health, Sustainable Livelihood and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, and the Environment implemented with partners and communities as empowered players in development.
Since its founding in 1970, PBSP has raised P5.2 billon, benefited P6.4 million Filipinos, and assisted over 6,500 social development projects.