Last October 3, I attended “Traynta,” the 30th Visayas Annual Membership Fellowship of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), to represent one of our investee companies that has been a PBSP member for many years. I was a young man starting a career in Makati when PBSP was founded in 1970 by 50 top Filipino businessmen to set aside 1% of their companies’ Net Income before Taxes (NIBT) to establish a foundation that will pursue poverty reduction programs. It will be 50 years in existence in a few years and it has become the largest business-led non-government organization that contributes to sustainable development and poverty reduction. In 2017, PBSP disbursed P2.7 billion for collaborative projects in health, education, environment, livelihood, development finance and institution building. All of these were funded by the contributions of the more than 100 companies that have pledged 1% of their NIBT. The membership includes the Henry Sy companies led by BDO, all the Aboitiz companies, the Pangilinan companies led by PLDT and First Pacific, Del Monte, Citibank, HSBC, Meralco, Lear Corp., Mercury Drug, Jollibee, Anscor, AB Capital, 2GO, and a slew of other profitable companies. By its 50 years of existence in 2020, it will have provided close to P100 billion to poverty alleviation projects all over the Philippines.
PBSP has developed the organization and the platforms to make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects more effective, efficient, and sustainable. It acts as partner and/or consultant to local and international company donors to add strategic value to their CSR programs, instead of one-time donations that do not change the poverty landscape. With its years of experience and proven track record, it has developed long-term/multi-year solutions to society’s poverty problem.
Visayas Regional Committee Chairman Jose Antonio Aboitiz has steered the Visayas chapter for a number of years and has accomplished life-changing projects among them the Cebu Hillylands reforestation and livelihood projects. This project improves the watersheds of the province while also improving livelihood of the hillyland settlers. And then there is the Safe Motherhood Program, classroom and educational facilities programs to improve access to higher education and employability, and the needs-based approach to the farmers and fishermen in Bohol, Samar, and Leyte.
Aside from all the Aboitiz companies that were mandated by the late Eduardo Aboitiz to be members of PBSP, LuDo & LuYm, Dumaguete City Development Bank, Cebu Landmasters, Opascor, Vivant, Apple One, Degalen, Juanito King Foundation, Philinsure, First Consolidated Bank, CitySavings, and Hawaiian Philippines are some of the Visayas’ corporate members. In the last 30 years the Visayas chapter of PBSP has reached and made better the lives of more than 100,000 households and may double this number in the next 20 years.
Mankind’s innate desire and capacity to help and assist neighbors and fellow human beings have always been demonstrated every time there are large-scale disasters anywhere in the world. Aid in terms of money and material goods are immediately sent. In the Philippines the Yolanda typhoon victims in Tacloban and Cebu were inundated with relief goods that lasted for some time. But all the donations had very little long-term effects on the victims’ lives. Most of the victims returned to their previous lives, some even more dependent on donations. This is where PBSP and similar organizations in other parts of the world comes in. Large, complex and systemic poverty problems need structured, integrated, and coordinated approaches and programs that span decades. The 50 years of PBSP is proof and the mandate to continue its work.