FISHING communities in Muntinlupa City have received boats from Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) in support of their livelihood and help protect Laguna de Bay, the country’s biggest lake located southeast of Metro Manila.
The eight boats, along with three solar paddle wheels aerator for improving water quality at the lake, were turned over to the city’s fisherfolk council on Oct. 11, MPIC said in a statement.
“Fishing is one of the oldest, most basic, and most important forms of livelihood,” MPIC Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said in the statement.
“We see it as an integral part of our company’s mission to uplift fisherfolk communities, who help supply our communities and our country with adequate food,” he said.
The project is part of the Laguna de Bay Welfare Awareness (LAWA) program, which is under MPIC’s Gabay Advocacies for a Sustainable Philippines in partnership with the Laguna Lake Development Authority.
“MPIC’s donation of bancas not only enables our community folk to sustain their existing livelihoods, but also enforces a sense of responsibility to care for the Lake that they depend on daily,” Muntinlupa City Mayor Rufino “Ruffy” B. Biazon is quoted in the statement.
Apart from livelihood support, the LAWA program will also promote wastewater management systems to help address the lake’s algal bloom problem and hamper the proliferation of damaging water hyacinths.
MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of First Pacific, the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — MSJ
