G-Diaries with Nat Geo

Same with Seasons 1 and 2, Gina Lopez remains steadfast in her goal of providing communities with financial and technical support to start their own social enterprises in the third season of G-Diaries. What makes the new season extraordinary is its greater exposure to global audience because the ABS-CBN program has entered into a partnership with the National Geographic Society (Nat Geo).

The developing relationship between the two parties was recently formalized with the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA), with Gina and FOX Networks Group Asia senior VP and GM Jude Turcuato as principal signatories, in the presence of select members of the entertainment press and social media bloggers.

Gina turned emotional while sharing how G-Diaries has become instrumental in uplifting the lives of the marginalized communities in the country. She also expressed gratefulness to partner organizations that voluntarily support the objective of G-Diaries for Filipinos, not to mention the fruitful benefit of its collaboration with Nat Geo.

“Nat Geo is (being aired) on 173 countries. If the beautiful sights in the Philippines have the way of reaching the clientele of Nat Geo, (then) that’s heavy-duty marketing. I mean, the people will say, ‘Oh my God, ang ganda ng Pilipinas.’ It’s going to be done in a way which resonates with what I believe in — which is people, culture and the environment. It’s really a good partnership,” she said.

Known as a world leader in geography, cartography and exploration, Nat Geo is taking part in transforming the eight I LOVE (Investments in Loving Organizations or Village Economies) communities into successful and sustainable agro-forestry, fisheries and eco-tourism sites by showcasing their beauty through its identified media and digital platforms when G-Diaries Season 3 begins airing on March 3. On Instagram alone, Nat Geo has 100 million followers.

“Because our mandate is to really inspire people to care about the planet globally, we are now gonna tell the story (of the chosen communities) to not only the Philippines but we’re gonna do our best to tell the story elsewhere so that people can see the model, especially if it works, and the whole world can know the great things that are happening in the Philippines,” Jude said.

The chosen communities — dubbed as the I LOVE sites — won in the Quest for Love last year. Gina explained that the winners were determined by the board of judges based on three criteria — track record, leadership and social economic plan.

The I LOVE sites are located in Tublay, Benguet; Bulusan, Sorsogon; Sta. Cruz Island, Zamboanga; Polomolok, South Cotabato; Lake Sebu, South Cotabato; Simunul Island and Bongao, Tawi Tawi; Upi, Maguindanao; and Maramag, Bukidnon.

“The key to change is the change agents or the person there on the ground to make sure everything is happening so we chose the Top 8 change agents,” explained Gina who clarified that the chosen communities are not the poorest of the poor but the types that have the potential to become change agents. Although the country boasts of a 6.7 percent GDP growth and is seen to be one of the Top 3 fastest growing economies in Asia, the robust growth has not trickled down to the remotest areas of the country — the fishermen, farmers, indigenous people and people in conflict areas.

Through change agents, Gina deems more jobs will come next. “What we want to do in the program is create a model. We want to show that when the people care, when there’s someone who stands for integrity and love, you end up making more money. There will be peace and order, and there will be good health.”

She continued, “I want to help facilitate an economy where our parents can stay home because right now, our economy is run by $30 billion OFW money. We’re running our country by sending our parents overseas. It’s wrong and we have economy so I wanna create an economy where they can just stay home. In Hong Kong, there’s a place where there are lots of OFWs and some are from Bohol, Bukidnon etc. They should be home with their families.”