PBSP funds P5B projects nationwide
The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) has already released P5 billion financial assistance for its poverty reduction program in 65 provinces in the country.
PBSP Executive Committee chair Philip Tan said the P5 billion financial assistance was spent for its over 5,000 projects in the country. It has benefited over 2.9 million poor Filipino households. They have touched the lives of underprivileged sectors such as the fisherfolk, rural workers, urban poor, landless farmers and indigenous cultural communities.
Currently, PBSP is implementing five poverty reduction programs in the provinces of Bohol, Cebu and Samar. The PBSP has also designed poverty alleviation programs such as Area Resource Management (ARM), Mindanao Peace and Development Program, Technology Management Program, Small and Medium Enterprise Credit (SMEC) Program and Visayas Workforce Development.
They are also into Strategic Private Sector Partnerships for Urban Poverty Reduction Program (STEP-UP), Vigan Potable Water Supply Project, Western Batangas Agrarian Reform Communities Project, Information Technology, Positive Lives Caravan and DOTS in the Workforce Project (Philippine Tuberculosis Initiatives for the Private Sector). They have yet to come up with poverty reduction program for Iloilo.
PBSP was formed in 1970 by 50 business leaders as response to socio-economic crisis confronting the time. It is a corporate-led social development foundation dedicated to the promotion of business sector leadership and commitment to social development. Today, its membership has grown to 203 members.
Tan said 30 percent of the country's 85.5 million people are considered poor and they want to bring hope to those who needed it most. "Fulfilling the needs of the poor will also make business innovative by unlocking commercial opportunities," he said.
Tan stressed that PBSP member companies have competing business interests. However, they have one goal which is to reduce poverty in the countryside. "PBSP community is unique because it is our opportunity to work together with our peers in the business community, we are united in the idea that business can actually make life good for all."
While, PBSP Board of Trustee head Pedro Roxas said there are 65 million poor Filipinos who live in the Visayas area. The PBSP which threads on their motto as Help People, Help Themselves wants to address the wider needs of the community. In Visayas, the PBSP has improved the lives of 22,000 households with its 18 long years of existence.
Roxas, who is the chair of the Central Azucarera Don Pedro Group added 25. 9 million Filipinos are considered "income poor" and 11.7 million Filipinos are considered "food poor". In 2004, unemployment rate is high which reached to 10.9 percent. The underemployment reached to 11.9 percent.