MANILA, Philippines — Megaworld Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of tycoon Andrew Tan, has pitched in to help poor students from islets in Sorsogon with the donation of motorized boats to fetch the children from their villages and bring them to their schools.
Francis Canuto, Megaworld Foundation president and senior vice president and head of the audit committee of the Megaworld Group, said the donation was made via another foundation that specializes in looking after the transport needs of school children, the Yellow School Boat Foundation .
This foundation sees to it that school children who cannot afford the banca fare to their school are freed from this financial hurdle.
Aside from the motorized banca donation, Tan also provided bancas to fishermen to help them in their lot.
Tan had donated a motorized school boat in Botigues Island in Cebu where there were about 3,000 poor residents whose livelihood depend on fishing. He noted that with the implementation of the K-12 program, the nearly 800 students from the island would not be able to afford attending school at the neighboring island of Doong.
Tan said he had made it a point to put education foremost in his CSR work. So far, Megaworld Foundation has seen to it that it helps fund the needs of its scholars, many of whom end up working in one of the real estate tycoon’s various enterprises.