FIRST PHILIPPINE HOLDINGS CORPORATION

In 2010, First Holdings increased its participation in the clearing of Pasig River through active support for BayaniJuan sa Calauan, a poverty reduction program that aims to transfer informal settlers residing in disaster-prone areas in Metro-Manila to a safer relocation site. To date, more than 4,000 families from Estero de Paco have been relocated to the BayaniJuan site in Southville 7, Calauan, Laguna. Another 10,000 families will also be relocated soon.  The Lopez Group Foundation Inc. coordinated with First Holdings for the rehabilitation of an elementary school later named Oscar M. Lopez Dayap Elementary School and donated funds for the construction of the school’s basketball center. Subsidiary First Gen sponsored construction of various classrooms and a canteen.  First Holdings’ construction arm, First Balfour, took charge of rehabilitating the school buildings and designing and building two Livelihood and Training Centers. Rockwell Land is handling the design and construction of the 500-seat Chapel of Two Hearts, and Lopez Group company Adtel provided solar lighting for a number of streets in the site. Energy Development Corporation (EDC) established the OML Binhi Tree Park, a 1,000 square-meter lot also in Calauan planted to 80 species of 14 endangered and premium native trees. The park is part of EDC’s BINHI program, a greening legacy program which aims to rescue and secure the gene pool of the country’s endangered premium trees by planting and growing seedlings into so-called mother trees in school grounds, public parks, and safe havens.