Everyday heroes take center stage

These days, we are told, heroes are in short supply. But maybe it just depends on where you look. Often, the best in Filipino excellence can be found in humble places. Take Philippine Air Force Capt. Giemel Espino. During the height of the El Niño droughts in 2005, this pilot personally spearheaded efforts to seed clouds and bring much-needed rains to Regions 2, 6 and 7 of the country, despite the risk to himself and his small aircraft. His efforts prevented huge losses in agricultural areas hardest-hit by the dry weather.

He wasn’t looking for any awards, but the Metrobank Foundation Inc., the 45-year-old bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm, thought he deserved one nonetheless. He was the MBFI’s Outstanding Philippine Soldier for 2005.

Or look among the nation’s dedicated but low-paid police officers, where you’ll find Police Supt. Jonathan Gawiga Wen Calixto, a team leader who’s led the elite Special Action Force in neutralizing robbery gangs, recovered high-powered firearms through Operation Plan Black Shark, ended an inmate siege at Metro Manila District Jail in Bicutan, and arrested the Magdalo soldiers in the 2007 Peninsula Hotel standoff. He was cited as the MBFI’s Outstanding Philippine Policeman for 2008.

All in a day’s work for ordinary, everyday Filipino heroes. But how often do you hear about them?

Thanks to Metrobank, which started the MBFI in 1979 under its chairman, Dr. George S.K. Ty, you get to hear a lot more about them. The MBFI has succeeded in bringing to light some of the country’s greatest men and women, inspiring others to do greater things. And the positive feedback among Filipinos is spreading.

Acknowledging The Good

You don’t usually associate banks with advocacy and charity work, but Metrobank has a long history of giving back that has grown over the years, compounded with interest. Under Mr. Ty’s guidance and vision, Metrobank has expanded its CSR branch, which originally honored excellence among teachers and artists, to include five areas of social concern.

The most recent to be honored are ordinary policemen and soldiers who show extraordinary dedication and commitment. Also expanded is the Foundation’s commitment to Manila Doctors’ Hospital, where it has developed programs to support the hospital’s charity wards and outreach missions, as well as providing scholarships to students in the Manila Doctors’ College.

Metrobank Foundation, Inc. president Aniceto M. Sobrepeña credits founder Ty with this increased focus on civil service heroes. “We expanded to public servants who, in the estimation of the Foundation, were not receiving the kind of attention and recognition given by a grateful society,” he says. “As you know, policemen and soldiers don’t receive much compensation, so Mr. Ty decided to look for them in the same way that we have looked for and recognized teachers and given them financial incentives to excel and provide opportunities for them to be known by the public.”

Another group receiving greater nurturing under the MBFI are students excelling at mathematics, which obviously has economic benefits for the country. Partnering with the Math Teachers Association of the Philippines and DepEd, MBFI organizes schoolwide, divisional and regional competitions, with national finals held in Manila. “This is our way to support and increase the preparedness of students getting into higher mathematics in college,” Sobrepeña notes.

Starting with a hefty endowment of US$50 million from Mr. Ty, the MBFI now allocates P100 million per year to fund projects in five main areas, tapping into society’s excellence with an eye toward bringing out the best the Philippines has to offer. These areas include civil service excellence (the Outstanding Philippine Soldiers and Outstanding Policemen Search awards), educational achievement (the Outstanding Teachers awards, the DepEd Math Challenge, Pacific Paint College Program, and College Scholarship Program), health care (projects with the Manila Doctors’ Hospital) and visual arts (Metrobank’s Art and Design Excellence, or MADE, awards).

All this to cultivate something that is too often in short supply these days, says Sobrepeña: hope. “We believe that by recognizing outstanding Filipinos, the Foundation supports the movement of bringing hope; that, despite all our problems, we can still find jewels in various sectors of society, and in the process of bringing these out, they can serve as role models for the young people.”

Truly A National Award

Like Dr. Josette T. Biyo, who was the Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teacher in 1997, honorees often go on to scale even greater heights.

Biyo, a teacher at Philippine Science High School in Iloilo, was recognized for breakthroughs she achieved in teaching science under Third World conditions. Despite a lack of sophisticated technology, Biyo’s students were able to conduct excellent research projects, such as making cough syrup from plant extracts and soap from coconut oil — projects that Biyo stressed must always benefit society. For her ability to encourage Filipino schoolchildren to experience the joy of learning through innovative experiments, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory even named a minor planet after this Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teacher. High praise, indeed.

But such everyday heroes do not come knocking at the doors of Metrobank; the Foundation conducts a thorough search each year, combing the country’s public institutions for possible nominees. Sobrepeña emphasizes the program is not simply an awards branch of the bank. “For teachers, soldiers and police, we apply a very deliberate search and selection process — that’s why our program is called the Outstanding Search, not awards. We spend money and go around the country, talking to schools, police units, and military camps where we ask possible nominators to help identify excellent civil servants in their midst.

“We select a very credible board of judges representing somebody from the legislature, the judiciary, the cabinet, the NGO sector and from the media, including sometimes the religious sector,” he adds. “The idea is that when you are awarded by the MBFI, you are awarded by a multi-sectoral jury, which makes the award a truly national award by a grateful nation.”

No surprise, then, that MBFI has won some 25 national awards, including several Anvil and Quill awards for its advocacies and projects.

Here are some comments from past judges of the MBFI nominees:

• “This is an eye-opener for me… As a human being, I have now more empathy for our men and women in uniform. The police have been humanized in my eyes.” (Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara)

• “A very rare experience. They are very much sensitive to the most heinous, most serious crime against humanity — poverty… I am very impressed to know that women have a special role in the community as well as their home.” (Ambassador Rosalinda Tirona)

• “The finalists’ stories were heart-rending. I knew the police were fighting against a negative image and a poor budget, but I didn’t know it was this bad.” (Jullie Yap-Daza )

• “The beautiful example of openness, international solidarity and outstanding philanthropy shown by Dr. George Ty through the Metrobank Foundation needs to be emulated by many more who have been blessed in life.” (Former President Corazon C. Aquino)

• “The Foundation should really be commended for its programs that reach out to the masses and provide opportunities for unlocking the potential of each person and help ensure a better future for all Filipinos.” (Justice Amuerfina A. Melencio-Herrera, chancellor, Philippine Judicial Academy)

• “The words of Dr. George S. K. Ty — ‘Transform possibilities into realities’ — shall be made part of my guiding principles in pushing forward the development goals of our city towards greater heights.”

(Mandaluyong Mayor Benjamin C. Abalos Jr.)

• “If the awardees are representative of the military, then we must have a good military.” (University of the Philippines Chancellor Dr. Sergio Cao)

It Takes A Better Village

Few take the time to study the Metrobank Foundation’s logo, but it reflects what founder Ty had in mind when the MBFI first came into being: a stylized blue heart ascending above the bank’s “M” symbol — blue suggesting nobility of spirit, always reaching higher.

Back in 1962, at the age of 29, Ty founded Metrobank from the existing Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company. At that early age, he already had a vision of becoming a captain of the financial world. But he also thought that business leaders had a responsibility to lead in community service as well. With Ty’s resolve to share the fruits of Metrobank’s success with society, the Metrobank Foundation was born on Jan. 8, 1979.

The former chairman is no less active in steering the Foundation’s spirit today. “Oh, he is very much active,” confirms Sobrepeña. “He is the visionary; he is very hands-on, he attends the judging, the final interviews, the presentations at Malacañang — all our teachers, soldiers and policemen are received by the President, and joined by Mr. Ty.”

One future MBFI project reflects that same upward spirit: envisioning a nation that embodies the very best, one village at a time.

“We have been the first bank that supported Gawad Kalinga,” notes Sobrepeña, “and they recently approached us because they want us to conduct a competition — I think that’s our branding now, people come to us and say, ‘We like your technology, your process, your criteria, why don’t you help us run this?’

“So we will run the Gawad Kalinga-Metrobank Design A Village Challenge. Aside from just designing a house, the competition will be held among students who will design an entire village: it will include landscaping, an area for livelihood, everything.”

To be conducted under the auspices of MADE, the final product will be winning designs for a future model village. The next step, says the president of Metrobank Foundation, is to turn that model into an actual village. “We will award designs from four different areas — Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas and NCR — and we hope that other donors that have been chosen will come in and help construct the whole village.”

Something MBFI has always aimed at: helping to articulate the best visions of the country, then bringing those visions to reality.