Top businessmen respond to Isko Moreno’s call to invest in Manila

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s top tycoons have responded to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno‘s call to invest in Manila and bring back the city’s lost glory, Moreno said in an interview last week.

“A lot of them have committed to help – Ricky Razon, Tessie Sy, Lance Gokongwei, Doris Magsaysay-Ho, all of them have agreed to help the city,” Moreno said last week on the sidelines of the opening of San Miguel Corp.’s learning center and food facility in Tondo.

For the tycoons, Manila was one way or another part of their lives, the mayor said.

He said that while the tycoons all agreed to help, Moreno is also urging them to invest in the city in bigger ways.

“Their investment is now being studied. We are now working on our counter-proposal so let’s say, if they want to come here, we will give them these options. We will protect their businesses from corruption and we can show them the possibilities on how they can invest,” he said.

Areas for possible investments are in tourism, energy-saving, environment and in the different industries, he said.

In tourism for instance, he said one of the famous bridges in Manila will be renovated to become how it was during the Spanish time.

“We will bring you back in time,” he said.

In all, Moreno said he is knocking on the doors of tycoons to pay it forward. After all, he said, they have benefited from doing business in Manila.

The goal is to lift Manila’s poorest of the poor out of poverty. “We will try to reach that kind of goal with everyone’s help,” he said.

SMC, led by its president and COO Ramon Ang, is among the first to respond to Moreno’s call to help the city.

The diversified conglomerate opened last week the first of its kind learning facility and food bank in the heart of Tondo with a target to serve the poorest barangays in the city.

Moreno and SMC president and COO Ramon Ang formally opened the Tondo facility.

Better World Tondo center aims to provide the poorest barangays of Manila access to food, but also the tools to allow them to improve their lives. They will be provided with canned goods, fresh produce such as vegetables and cooked food as well.

“Better World Tondo was a concept we’ve had for some time. We want to be able to collaborate with businesses and companies to collect excess food, store them in a food bank, to be served to those in need by community volunteers. It’s food rescue to address hunger, which is still a major problem for many sectors of our society,” Ang said.

Ang said more than a food bank, the center is a learning facility that aims to help improve the lives of the children of Tondo.