PBSP Celebrates 30 Years of Uplifting Lives in the Visayas

When Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) started its operations in the
Visayas 30 years ago, Cebu’s watersheds were on the brink of a socio-economic
stagnation. With the Cebu City government, PBSP led the direct involvement of the
business sector on the rehabilitation of the watersheds by planting trees and pouring in
livelihood support to farmers. Thirty years later, Cebu now boasts of a Cebu Hillylands
with a sustainably managed program.

This is just among the successful programs of PBSP in the Visayas. Established in
1970 by 50 benevolent business leaders, PBSP continues to work together with its
member-companies, donors and partners to solve large, complex and systemic societal
problems across the country. Today, its collective efforts in the Visayas generate more
impact in the communities through its programs on Health, Education, Environment and
Livelihood.

As it convenes its members, donors and partners in the celebration of its 30th Visayas
Annual Membership Fellowship today in Cebu, PBSP looks back at the highlights of its
three-decade history, including the innovative programs that helped shape the
landscape of social development in the region.

THE 1980S: NEGROS DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

In the 1980s, Negros Occidental produced 68 percent of the country’s sugar needs.
Land owners would require a large volume of labor force, mostly landless workers, to
run the sugar plantations year-round. When sugar prices plummeted in the world market
in 1985, over 200,000 sugar workers in the province were affected.

PBSP launched the Negros Occidental Development Assistance Program to enable
communities affected by the sugar crisis to reach a level of subsistence and food
sufficiency. It focused on welfare assistance through rice subsidy, backyard vegetable
gardening, and community organizing. In later years, the program evolved from
backyard farming for food sufficiency to entrepreneurship development for income
augmentation.

PBSP collaborated with the provincial government, the Department of Agrarian Reform,
community organizations, and the Philippine National Bank (PNB) for the program.

Through this combined assistance, PBSP was able to increase the productivity and net
income of farmers, distribute 15,000 hectares of land to qualified beneficiaries, and
develop functional organizations with sustained socioeconomic activities.

THE 1990s: BOHOL AREA RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

In 1993, PBSP and its partners implemented the Bohol Area Resource Management
program that focused on improving the productivity of rice farmers who were forced to
depend on rain-fed mechanisms due to insufficient irrigation systems.

Inadequate threshing and drying facilities, low milling recovery rates, and poor market
strategies resulted to high cost of capital inputs. Hence, the program invested on pre-
and post-harvest facilities to address productivity losses during production. Small water
impounding facilities were constructed to improve low production among rain-fed farms.

Capacity building interventions were also provided to its local proponents and
cooperatives to enable them to sustainably manage additional services offered to their
farmer-members.

More than 1,000 small farmers sustainably improved their income through crop
diversification of agricultural production. The installation of additional facilities helped
reduce rice production losses, while the improved access to credit loans, additional
farming technologies, and capacity building trainings helped develop cooperatives and
farmers into leaders and entrepreneurs.

THE 2000s: SAVE THE BUHISAN WATERSHED PROJECT

Cebu’s Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve, located within the 28,300-hectare
Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL), is Metro Cebu’s source of water. It feeds
the 106-year-old Buhisan Dam, the only surface water source in Cebu operated by the
Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

However, the watershed is continuously haunted by threats of water shortage for the
past 25 years. A study of the non-government organization Cebu Uniting for Sustainable
Water revealed that by 2030, Metro Cebu will eventually run out of water if efforts are
not carried out immediately.

In 2008, PBSP launched the Save the Buhisan Watershed Project to help sustain the
water supply for Metro Cebu, improve lives of more than 100 poor households through
alternative and eco-friendly livelihood opportunities, and transform the watershed into a
sustainably managed eco-tourism destination. Through the project, PBSP created
strong links among stakeholders for the provision of livelihood options and enterprises,
capacity building of community-based organizations, governance, and environmental
rehabilitation.

THE 2010s: HEIGHT OF CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT

Meanwhile, companies began to take a more active role in social development when the
United Nations (UN) ratified the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). PBSP became the national secretariat of the UN’s MDGs and the Business
Sector for its proven track record and large-scale impact.

In the Visayas, PBSP’s collective efforts allowed it to achieve large-scale
accomplishments that each player or stakeholder could not have achieved individually.
This helped implement its rehabilitation interventions after Super Typhoon Yolanda
destroyed thousands of communities in 2013.

PBSP also recalibrated its development programs in the Visayas to make it sustainable.
With the German Agency for International Cooperation, PBSP developed the Strategic
Corporate-Community Partnership for Local Development (SCOPE) program.

SCOPE contributed to the sustained growth of the company while tapping its inherent potential
to help eliminate poverty by engaging more communities into their core businesses.

CONTINUING THE LEGACY

“Thirty years is an important anniversary. For PBSP in the Visayas, marking thirty years
is a significant reminder of how long we have practiced corporate social responsibility,
of how much we learned and experienced to face the challenges ahead. Celebrating
this occasion encourages us to reflect on the past three decades of our history as
PBSP’s agent of change in the Visayas,” said PBSP Trustee and Visayas Regional
Committee Chairman Jose Antonio Aboitiz.

As it moves towards its 50th year and beyond, PBSP is committed to continue working
together and strengthening private sector engagement to fight poverty, solve societal
problems through sustainable solutions and uplift lives.

In the Visayas, PBSP aims to continue its watershed management and rehabilitation
efforts in the Buhisan watershed through a five-year program with the support of its
members, partners and corporate donors.

PBSP Trustee and Board Treasurer Pedro Roxas led over 100 business leaders from
the Visayas in the 30th celebration.

“We will ensure that our platforms for collective engagements will provide value for business, not only on the social aspect but the business aspect as well. As CSR has evolved, we have seen a difference in how social development programs are being discussed in the boardroom. We believe PBSP is in this position of bridging the discussion of social and business bottom lines,” he said.

The NGO also recognized its new member company, Apple One Properties, Inc. and acknowledged Aboitiz & Company, Juanito King & Sons, Inc., and Pilmico Foods Corporation as its biggest givers for the last 30 years.