'Shore It Up' slated in Subic Bay

MANILA, Philippines - “Shore It Up,” the award-winning and unique environmental program of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and The Philippine STAR, is set to kick off from Sept. 15 to 16 in Subic Bay in Zambales.

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan and Philippine STAR president and CEO Miguel Belmonte signed last Thursday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to kick off the program that has given hundreds of managers and employees of MPIC, together with its investee companies, academic institutions, environmentalists, scientists and local government units, the opportunity to participate in this yearly coastal cleanup.

Last year, “Shore It Up” won an Award of Merit at the prestigious 47th Anvil Awards, the “Oscars” of the Philippine public relations industry held yearly by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP).

Now on its fourth year, “Shore It Up” started out as a simple e-mail campaign and now boasts a growing partnership of hundreds of volunteers from both government and the private sector that have so far educated two communities in Pangasinan on environmental preservation.

The program continues to successfully send its message of hope through the print, broadcast and digital media.

MPIC won the Anvil for its environmental conservation and preservation efforts at the Hundred Islands Nature Park in Alaminos, Pangasinan, where a three-pronged plan to rehabilitate the local mangrove forests, steward perpetual coastal cleanup, and relocate indigenous giant clams was implemented.

With the theme “Rescue, Restore and Revive,” the “Shore It Up” program recognized the need for a realistic goal and thought-out movement to create a significant impact at the Nature Park not just now, but for generations to come.

This year’s leg of “Shore It Up” will be held in conjunction with the “Clean Up the World” weekend. Aside from a coastal cleanup and reforestation project with local schoolchildren and teachers, the MPIC, together with its dive partners in “Shore It Up,” will do an underwater cleanup of some areas in Subic Bay as well as install an artificial reef.

Aligned with corporate goals

During the MOU signing, Jose Ma. Lim, MPIC president, said “Shore It Up” is in line with MPIC’s efforts toward sustainable development.

“We are one of the few companies that have been able to ensure that there is a goal congruence between sustainable development and our own business goals,” Lim said.

“We find them perfectly aligned. By doing these efforts, we are able to make the country progress further,” he added.

Lim said the MPIC set up in 2008 a foundation with the mandate to implement programs designed to benefit communities, organizations, families and individuals, especially in areas where MPIC companies operate.

“We have a mindset that says doing all these sustainability initiatives improves our bottom-line,” said Lim. “The objectives of helping the community and the company are both met.”

This September, the volunteers of “Shore It Up” and the coastal communities in Subic Bay, Zambales, would no doubt agree.