Quill cites RAFI-Freeman's 'Tree of the Month' project

CEBU CITY, Philippines – A project of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) with The Freeman, a sister paper of The Philippine STAR, gained recognition in the recent 10th Philippine Quill Awards.

“Tree of the Month,” which comes out in The Freeman twice a month, was a finalist in the writing category of the communication skills division of the Quill Awards.

It was a double victory for RAFI as its Run 2 Plant 4 GREENIN Philippines won the Quill Award of Merit for communications management, economic, social, and environmental development.

RAFI Executive Committee chairperson Ma. Cristina Aboitiz, RAFI chief operating officer Dominica Cua, RAFI deputy director for operations Amaya Aboitiz, RAFI integrated development executive director Rowena Bandola-Alensonorin, and RAFI communications officer Haidee Palapar received the two awards during the awarding ceremony held last Nov. 18 at Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila in Quezon City.

They were joined by The Freeman news editor Lucky Malicay.

“The awards are indicators that RAFI has achieved that competitive advantage in terms of pushing its programs and advocacies forward through communication, given RAFI’s appropriate skills and systems. Also, they serve as a challenge for RAFI to continuously raise the bar so that the foundation will continue to be effective in delivering its brand promise and reach the highest mark of excellence,” Alensonorin said.

Run 2 Plant 4 GREENIN Philippines is the environmental initiative under the GREENIN Philippines (Generation REdemption and Expansion of Natural resources INitiatives in the Philippines) program of RAFI, which engages the general public to participate in a simultaneous running and planting of native tree species throughout the province of Cebu.

Held last June 25, the event was aimed at raising public awareness on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation among local government leaders and in forging local and national government commitment to action as well as encourage multiple partnerships in caring for the environment.

It gathered 55,372 participants from across Cebu who collectively planted 239,580 native tree seedlings in more than 115 hectares of land. These figures were beyond RAFI’s targets of 20,000 participants, 100,000 native tree seedlings, and 56 hectares.

On the other hand, “Tree of the Month” aims to educate the public on various native trees species and encourage their propagation. The Freeman shares this advocacy.

Since this partnership started early this year, RAFI has been able to extend technical expertise on the proper planting and caring of native trees to more individuals and organizations.

“We at The Freeman are very proud to have such recognition coming from a prestigious award-giving body,” Malicay said.

He referred to the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines, which hands out the Philippine Quill Awards annually.

“The Philippine Quill Awards is a program geared toward excellence of business and organization that collectively lead to national development. With communication as our main tool to help resolve the panacea of problems that our country and the rest of the world are currently up against, I am proud to say that this standard-setting event has once again proven fruitful in providing a bountiful harvest of innovation and effectiveness which we can use to address those issues,” IABC Philippines chairman Elpi Cuna Jr. said.

IABC Philippines is the first chapter of the IABC outside of the United States. It continues the tradition of excellence through its annual awards program of the Communication in Excellence (CEO) Excel Awards given to leaders whose outstanding and strategic use of communication helped them achieve business goals; the Philippines Quill Awards; and its continuing learning programs for professionals and students.

RAFI president Roberto Aboitiz is among the awardees of the CEO Excel Awards 2011.