More LGUs join Shore-it-Up campaign of MVP Group

MANILA, Philippines - Now on its fifth year of implementation, the coastal and underwater cleanup campaign of the MVP Group of Companies will be expanded to include major beaches in the country.

Several local government units signed yesterday a memorandum of understanding with Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) headed by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan for the implementation of its “Shore it Up: Rescue, Restore, Revive” campaign.

Participating in the campaign are the municipality of Mabini, Batangas; City of Alaminos, province of Pangasinan; Puerto Galera; and Del Carmen in Siargao, Surigao del Norte.

“This is our way of responding to environment concerns all over the country. Our focus is on the major shorelines. And in due time we can expand the coverage of the program,” said Pangilinan.

“There are major beach areas. There are also issues in these areas and so we want to clean them up first,” he added.

Aside from coastal and underwater clean up, the Shore it Up! campaign include the conduct of environmental issue awareness sessions, tree planting activities, waste segregation, and installation of artificial reefs.

Over the past five years, Shore it Up has gained 13,000 volunteers and 43 event partners among which is The Philippine Star.

Aside from MPIC, other companies within the MVP Group of Companies participating in the campaign are Philex Mining Corp., Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), SMART Communications, SPi Global and Maynilad Water Services, Inc.

The corporate social responsibility arms of Meralco and PLDT – Meralco Foundation and SMART Foundation – are also partners in the campaign.