ABS-CBN Foundation partners with CHED for Pasig River rehabilitation

MANILA, Philippines - The ABS-CBN Foundation has partnered with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to raise consciousness among the Filipino youth on the importance of rehabilitating the Pasig River and caring for it once revived.

ABS-CBN Foundation managing director Regina Lopez said the youth’s awareness of the need to care for the river would ensure the sustainability and eventual success of efforts to revive the Pasig River.

Lopez said the foundation’s experience in successfully reviving the La Mesa watershed in Quezon City showed the importance of increasing the consciousness of the youth and their participation in saving the environment.

“If the schools are behind us, if the youth is behind us, then we can clean the Pasig River within our lifetime. It can really be done,” Lopez said in the launching of the campaign at the ABS-CBN complex in Quezon City yesterday afternoon.

Through the CHED and ABS-CBN, the “Taga-Ilog” information campaign is expected to reach 2.6 million students in over 1,500 colleges and universities.

The campaign stresses the role of the Pasig River in the birth and formation of the Philippine nation, especially Metro Manila.

“The river is intimately connected to our history, our culture as a people and as a nation,” Lopez said.

The “Taga-Ilog” campaign will be a branch in the foundation-led private-public sector effort to clean up the river, dubbed ‘‘Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig” (KBPIP), launched last February.

The campaign, Lopez said, would promote participation among private schools and state universities and colleges and their students in fund-raising activities being conducted by the KBPIP.

Funding would come from the upcoming Philippine International Marathon 2009 and the “Piso Para sa Pasig” text donation program.

CHED chairman Emmanuel Angeles gave his full support to the “Taga-Ilog” project. – Rainier Allan Ronda