MANILA, Philippines - Sadly, in this archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, there are many girls and boys of school age who work to help earn a living for their families instead of going to school, as they should. A paper by Dalisay Maligalig and Jose Ramon Albert, submitted to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, cites the increasing incidence of poverty as having a direct relation to this tragic reality. On assessing basic education in the Philippines, the writers noted that the worsening dropout rate among elementary and high school students may be partly due to the desire to contribute to the family income.
Since the government has limited budget on education, several companies — as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) — have been implementing projects to give underprivileged children better access to basic education. But before CSR became a household term in the boardrooms of the country’s major business organizations, a handful of companies have already been giving back to the underprivileged in society. One of these business organizations is the Aboitiz Group.
Jon Ramon Aboitiz, chairman of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., the listed holding company of the Aboitiz Group, recalled that it was not called CSR then.
“It was basically helping others, the communities. It was helping people help themselves, giving to and sharing with the communities,” says Jon Ramon Aboitiz.
As a family-owned corporation, Aboitiz has been involved in charitable works for decades now.
In the ’70s, Aboitiz and Company, together with similar-minded companies, established the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a non-profit organization of companies that’s committed to poverty alleviation. PBSP member-companies give a percentage of their annual profit to fund programs in social development and environmental management. The Aboitiz Group recently turned over P1.5 million to PBSP.
“My grandfather had instilled in all of us the value of helping people. He told us, ‘You must remember we were poor once… (so) never forget the poor.’ (This is why), sharing is an important part of our lives,” relates Jon Ramon.
Through the years, though, the Aboitiz Group saw the need to focus on priority concerns, in communities where its businesses operate. Thus, in 1988, the Aboitiz Group established the Aboitiz Foundation.
“We wanted to organize ourselves better, we needed to professionalize (our assistance to the community), ensure effectiveness (of our projects), and measure our impact,” says Jon Ramon, also president of the Aboitiz Foundation. “There was a tremendous amount needed for us to form (the foundation).”
Augusto “Sonny” Carpio III, Aboitiz Foundation managing trustee, says the creation of the foundation supports the Group’s efforts to integrate CSR into its core business.
The Aboitiz Foundation focuses on education, primary health and child care, enterprise development, employee-initiated CSR projects and just recently, the environment. In 2009, the Group spent P337 million on various programs and projects, implemented nationwide by the Foundation and by individual companies.
Aboitiz has built and repaired classrooms and school buildings, donated computers and books, trained teachers, and offered scholarships in communities that host the operations of its business units. Its scholarship program helps about 1,200 deserving students every year.
Since health is part and parcel of social development, the Foundation also implements programs and projects that involve the installation of water systems, donation of medical equipment, and the conduct of medical and dental missions. It also holds classes for street children.