Pampanga love
Apalit is a first-class municipality in the province of Pampanga in Central Luzon with a population of 121,057 people as of 2024.
It sits in the southern part of Pampanga along the Pampanga River (Rio Grande de la Pampanga), about 55 kilometers north of Manila and 11 kilometers south of San Fernando, bounded by San Simon and Minalin in Pampanga, as well as Calumpit, Pulilan and Baliuag in Bulacan.
The town was named after the apalit tree (Pterocarpus indicus or Narra), which once grew in abundance along the riverbanks. Formally established as a town by Spanish authorities in 1582 under Governor-General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa, the town is also widely known as the historic home of Panday Pira, the first recorded native cannon-maker in the Philippines.
Apalit is also the hometown of our chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, or MVP, who spent part of his childhood there.
It is for this reason that the MVP Group of Companies, particularly its Tulong Kapatid CSR arm, keeps coming back to help it.
In mid-September, weeks of Habagat rains left Apalit under deep floodwaters. Our chairman returned to Barangay San Juan, where he grew up, and handed relief packs to evacuees sheltering at the Jose Escaler Memorial School.
MVP Tulong Kapatid then turned over additional relief packs and drinking water to the municipal government of Apalit, led by Mayor Oscar “Jun” Tetangco Jr., for distribution to other flood-hit communities.
The group expressed its thanks to the mayor and the local government for their partnership on the ground.
Days later, the MVP Group Tulong Kapatid and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) signed a partnership to bring 16 fully electric Love Buses to Pampanga under the DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program.
The MVP Group will provide eight units and the DSWD will provide eight more. Four of the MVP Group’s eight buses will come from the PLDT-Smart Foundation, with support from Fir
st Pacific Company Limited. Global Electric Transport, the DSWD’s implementing partner, will support deployment and operation.
Chairman MVP and DSWD Central Luzon regional director Venus F. Rebuldela led the ceremonial signing. Gov. Lilia “Nanay” Pineda joined them for the province, and the Pampanga provincial government will work with the MVP Group, DSWD and GET on deployment and operation of the buses.
The buses will prioritize persons with disabilities, women and senior citizens. They will also anchor PWD-Electric Transportation Services run by associations under the Sustainable Livelihood Program. That makes the project a source of income for PWDs as well as a way to get around.
“My hopes for these buses are both ordinary and meaningful,” MVP said. He spoke of students reaching school on time and nurses reaching their shifts without riding several jeepneys and tricycles.
Regional director Rebuldela said the program promotes the long-term economic self-reliance of PWDs.
Partners from the MVP Group Tulong Kapatid who were present include Jeff Tarayao, president, One Meralco Foundation; Esther Santos, president, PLDT-Smart Foundation; Melody del Rosario, president, Metro Pacific Investments Foundation; Menchie Silvestre, excutive director, Alagang Kapatid Foundation (TV5); Anette de Ocampo, head of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Maynilad Water Services; and Marge Barro, executive director, Makati Medical Center Foundation
For those of us at Metro Pacific, the lesson is a familiar one. Infrastructure is ultimately about people, whether it is water, power, health care or transportation.
Chairman MVP has set the bar and the example of how we can help, in “wiping the tear from every eye of every Filipino.”
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Congratulations are in order to the Philippine delegation that saw action in the recent 20th Asian Games held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The delegation, led by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Patrick “Pato” Gregorio and Philippine Olympic Commission (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, earned a total of 29 medals (four gold, nine silver, and 16 bronze), marking the country’s largest Asian Games medal haul since 1966.??May we continue to reap much success in Philippine sports with the continued support of both government and the private sector. *
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