Makati students tapped in FPIC cleanup drive

MANILA, Philippines - The First Philippines Industrial Corp. tapped high school students for a cleanup campaign in Barangay Bangkal, Makati City, which was affected by a leak in the FPIC’s oil pipeline.

The FPIC allowed the students of Bangkal High School to paint FPIC’s nature-inspired graffiti walls of its US-made vans, which contained the multiphase extraction system (MPE) that will be used to recover and treat the leaked oil. Art teacher Emmanuel Valenzuela supervised the students.

The activity was a joint project of the FPIC and barangay officials, led by chairman Fermin Eusebio.

Engineer Nards Ablaza, FPIC Bangkal remediation project manager, said the project is a good community-building activity.

“We want to involve the community in everything that we are doing. The MPE system will clean the soil and groundwater in Bangkal so the environmental theme for the artwork is quite appropriate. This is also an opportunity to show that the MPE system is absolutely safe,” Ablaza said.