Coke joins coastal cleanup

MANILA, Philippines - It was a one-kilometer walk from the parking area to the site on a narrow road, which was wet in some parts due to the heavy downpour very early that morning, but the motley crowd of volunteers  from organizations, government agencies, students and even families  did not seem to mind. There was an almost festive mood at the Freedom Park, off the coastal road along Manila Bay last Saturday, Sept. 21, as thousands participated in the 2013 International Coastal Clean Up (ICC) Day, said to be the world’s biggest coastal clean-up.  Among the important personalities who came to give their support for the massive clean-up campaign were US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry K. Thomas Jr. and Senator Cynthia Villar.

“This is the first time that Coca-Cola FEMSA is participating in the Philippines, although we have been participating regularly in the past in other parts of the world,” said CEO Juan Ramon Felix of Fomento Economico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. or FEMSA, the largest beverage company in Mexico and in Latin America, as well as the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the world.

The FEMSA Foundation is present in nine cities in Latin America and works with communities not only in the coastal areas but also in riversides and lakesides, Juan C. Dominguez, human resources and corporate affairs director of Coca-Cola FEMSA, Asia Division, explained. In the Philippines, FEMSA is developing water-based projects with the ADB for local communities.

One such project is the water-purification in urban areas such as Manila, Davao, and Cebu. “Flooding affects the quality of the water,” Dominguez remarked. “You may have access to water, but it might be contaminated. We would like to promote the correct use of water.” Communities along the Pasig River, for example, live near water, but they cannot use it because it is contaminated. “Water, which is a resource, can also be a risk,” Dominguez noted. “Not only government and community involvement but also cultural involvement is needed. People need to understand the value of water.”

They have had much success with their water projects in the other countries where they are present such as  Colombia, where Dominguez is from, Costa Rica and Mexico where they’ve put up water-purification plants using salt, which requires little maintenance and little cost,” Dominguez shared.

“We support the clean-up of Manila Bay,” Dominguez remarked. As bottlers of beverages, it only makes sense that water should be their advocacy. “Water is our main resource,” he says. “There would be no beverage without water.”

Over 100 Coca-Cola FEMSA employees joined the thousands of volunteers from various sectors, both private and government led by the Department of Natural Resources, in the international coastal clean-up at the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area, also known as the Freedom Park Islands. This is a 175-hectare mangrove forest and marine habitat, which serves as sanctuary for dozens of bird species, including migratory birds coming from as far north as Siberia. Sadly, tons of garbage washed ashore from the bay where it had been indiscriminately dumped presents such a sorry sight.

“We encourage our employees to volunteer,” Dominguez said, “to be relevant.” Fortunately, “It comes easy for Filipinos. Working together is easy for them,” he noted. “They came today not for the ride, not for the T-shirt, not even for the sun, but to help.” Some came with their families, giving up an otherwise work-free weekend morning. If they did not have to be elsewhere in a swimming competition with their mom that same morning, Dominguez would have brought his two daughters along, too.

It was refreshing to see the CEO of the world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola joining his co-workers and getting a sack to  fill up with the trash strewn on the shore which he’d collected himself. Everyone seemed unmindful of the dark clouds threatening overhead. Not even the super typhoon, which was reported to be the year’s most powerful storm that battered the northernmost islands of the country that day could discourage these volunteers from showing up and doing their share to care for the environment.