MVP rallies business community to support livelihood, agriculture ventures

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan is calling on the business community to address the need for more livelihood opportunities for the people and creating a more consistent food production through agriculture.

Now on its 50th year, PBSP, a prestigious organization that gathers business leaders across the country to create various efforts for sustainable development and poverty reduction, continues to change the lives of the Filipino people by changing the landscape of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate citizenship and responsible business practices.

PLDT, the country’s largest integrated telco and a key member of the MVP Group of Companies, is one of PBSP’s active members since 1995.

“From those early days of my involvement, PBSP has evolved from what it is today which I think is more meaningful – more deep involvement in education, in livelihood, jobs creation as well. Of course in health, where we (remain as) a major participant and assistance… In a way, PBSP has got to evolve with the changing times and with the changing landscape of the donor community,” Pangilinan said.

By focusing efforts on poverty reduction, zero hunger and good health and well-being programs, PBSP heeds to the call of the United Nations to develop more sustainable solutions to societal problems.

“I’m fixated on providing jobs and livelihood for our people because I think it is a great answer – not only to the poverty issue – but also to the many social ills. If people just have jobs to support their families, so they’re not idle; they don’t have to resort to crime and that sort of thing. (It is our goal for) the business community to help PBSP create those businesses that can provide jobs for our people,” Pangilinan said.

“I’m high on food production. Given this pandemic, we have to really map out where the food supplies are coming so if we are able to do that, then we can manage the logistics of bringing the food to Metro Manila in crisis events. So that people won’t get into panic-buying mode as (what) we’ve experienced in the early weeks of this pandemic,” he said.

Aside from livelihood opportunities and food production, the companies, under the leadership of Pangilinan, have been at the forefront of the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The MVP Group continues to support frontliners and the government and its response teams by providing hospital equipment and PPEs. The group also reaches out to various families and communities by providing grocery packs and other immediate assistance.

“Procuring vaccines is something that our group is willing to sponsor in a large way – not only to accommodate the health needs of our employees and their families but also the patients of our hospitals… So that we are able to deploy those vaccines as wide as we can to our people – and use our network of hospitals to help deploy those vaccines. So we can inoculate as many people as we can,” Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan, through the MetroPac Movers Inc. (MMI), the logistics arm of the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), has also committed to provide storage of the vaccines in one of its facilities.