PLDT-Smart Foundation: Rebuilding lives, connecting people, fulfilling dreams
The worst of times d e - mands the best from us. It is upon this unflinching, hard- asrock spirit that the MVP Tulong Kapatid, the corporate social responsibility consortium of companies headed by PLDT-Smart Chairman and CEO Manny V. Pangilinan, is anchored.
In 2012, in the aftermath of super typhoon Pablo, the strongest yet to hit Mindanao, Tulong Kapatid helped a community pick up from the rubble and rebuild their shattered lives by giving them more than just a roof over their heads. It built 266 houses that the typhoon victims, most of them farmers and fishermen, now proudly call their homes.
“We tried to make the houses quite nice, very livable because MVP himself wanted them to have at least two bedrooms, unlike the usual one-room affairs that are donated,” stresses PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) president Ma. Esther Santos. “MVP was very firm on that and was very specific on the design he wanted — the house has to have at least a divider for privacy because he remembers one report that points out that one of the causes of incest was having just one room.”
WANTED: STURDY, DISASTER-RESILIENT HOMES
The government specifically asked MVP Tulong Kapatid to help with housing, but as they were not really skilled at housing, they asked the help of experts. “I asked Jorge Consunji of DMCI and although he said they don’t do this kind of housing, he agreed out of friendship and to help the people. But because DMCI is known for good construction, we had to make sure the houses were sturdy and disaster-resilient, enough to withstand possibly the strongest windstorms with a velocity of 280 kph.”
Built on a well-located resettlement site donated by the Davao Oriental provincial government under Governor Corazon Malanyaon, the houses were really simple, good enough for a family of four or five, with two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen.
Santos elaborates, “The normal houses that are donated are row houses because they’re less costly, but then, when we saw how the people lived, we said why are we going to force people to live in row houses when they’re used to open spaces? So, what we did were duplex houses with enough space between the houses. And the house should have electricity and water since Meralco and Maynilad are part of the MVP Group.”
Simple as these homes were, the beneficiary families of the housing units built by Tulong Kapatid in Barangay Lambajon in Baganga, Davao Oriental felt they’d won the lottery; they said they were the envy of the whole town. Having lived by the sea all their lives, they had to adjust to living in a concrete house for the first time, with modest creature comforts.
At that time, super typhoon Pablo was the strongest, leaving more than a thousand people dead with hundreds more missing in its wake. But then came a stronger typhoon, Yolanda, to which a lot of women lost their husbands who tried to protect their homes. Not only did they lose their homes, they also lost their treasured churches, which was truly heartbreaking for the scores of religious faithful.
MR. C TO THE RESCUE
But assorted help came from far and wide and generous souls were not wanting. One of them was maestro Ryan Cayabyab who wanted to celebrate his 60th birthday in a special way: By staging a concert, “Rise! Rebuilding from the Ruins,” with PLDT-Smart Foundation working with Caritas Manila, CCP, Smart Infinity, and One Meralco Foundation to raise funds for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of churches and chapels destroyed by Yolanda.
The once- in- a- lifetime concert brought together the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Basil Valdez, Dulce, Jed Madela, mezzo- soprano Clarissa Ocampo, tenor Ervin Lumauag, A 100-Voice Choir including Voices of Aloha from the University of Hawaii, with the special participation of Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle.
Santos describes that when a disaster strikes, the first thing they do is relief operations, in cooperation with TV5 and the other companies of MVP, which is why it’s called the MVP Tulong Kapatid. For typhoon Yolanda, Tulong Kapatid was assigned to different areas under the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery. MVP chose Tacloban and Roxas, Capiz where there were no volunteers yet.
In line with its advocacy of disaster preparedness and resilience, the PLDT-Smart Foundation, with support from One Meralco Foundation and Ciena Communications, turned over the MVP Tulong Kapatid Multi-purpose and Evacuation Center to the Archdiocese of Palo, Leyte, to coincide with the second anniversary of Pope Francis’ emotional visit to typhoon-ravaged Leyte.
MULTI-PURPOSE-CUM-EVACUATION CENTER
“As part of our disaster preparedness response, we had long been thinking of promoting the idea of evacuation centers,” discloses Mon Isberto, head of public affairs, PLDT and Smart. “Having a multi-purpose center is really a good idea because you can use it during normal times. As the entire country is a potential tsunami area, it’s a program that local governments should pursue. After all, we’re fond of building basketball courts. So, why not transform this basketball court kind of gym to an evacuation center by adding washroom and kitchen facilities? And get partners to maintain and manage these facilities?”
The country’s leading telecom company also has a training program that focuses on schools. “Communication is an integral part of disaster preparedness response, so early on, we decided it’s going to be a core activity of Smart and PLDT,” says Isberto. “It’s called Tropang Ready and we dress up the program in the form of entertainment and games because it’s easier to communicate, it’s more fun and interactive. We discovered that CHED is asking schools to have a disaster preparedness plan, which is actually a good idea. Schools are becoming more and more sensitive to having disaster preparedness plans.”
“After the initial difficulty of looking for land to locate a multi-purpose center, we found an ideal partner in Palo, Leyte Archbishop John Du who was a very good administrator,” Santos recounts.
EARNING THEIR KEEP
But other than the structures or infrastructures, what Tulong Kapatid wants to work on more in the future is the livelihood of the victims of calamities.
“After the storm or rehabilitation, they need to have a steady source of income even for their free housing because now, they have water and electricity to pay for aside from their usual needs,” Santos asserts.
She adds, “At that time, Governor Corazon Malanyaon of Davao Oriental was also looking for investors for the province because the people needed jobs. The place is known for agriculture and fishery. You should see the fresh lobsters that they catch! At first, we were thinking of palm oil because we were looking at the Indonesian model and it’s typhoon-resistant, but it works differently in Indonesia where it’s subsidized. The other thing we were looking at was cacao because a lot of the coconut trees were destroyed.”
After typhoon Pablo, the government, through the Department of Trade and Industry, helped the farmers of Davao Oriental to come up with an incomegenerating livelihood. Surely, it’s hot stuff: chili pepper, known as Hot Pablo.
Over and above the physical rehabilitation is the even bigger task of rebuilding shattered lives. Santos notes, “There were people who got depressed after losing their whole families; who were desperate after losing their property. And there were those who suffered the survivor syndrome — why did they survive, is it their fault that their loved ones died? We asked our Metro Pacific Hospital Group to help in these and other health-related aspects.”
Surely, with a lot of help from concerned people, such as the MVP Tulong
Kapatid, the victims of these calamities can dream of a bright future after the long, dark night.