The Lopez Group 2018 CSR Investment Report
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, Nelson Mandela.
For 2018, almost half of the investment (49%) of the Lopez group went to SDG Goal 4 which “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities”. One of the biggest programs of the group that addresses access to quality education is ABS-CBN Foundation’s Operation Sagip which provides for school buildings, scholarships and educational soft programs through the Programa Genio. Other initiatives under this goal are EDC’s assistance to formal education and the Kananga-EDC Institute of Technology (KEITECH) which aims to be “a world-class post-secondary technical vocational training center that will graduate highly-skilled workers, sought after by employers locally and globally for their self-discipline and correct work attitudes”. Twelve of the sixteen Lopez group companies and foundations that participated in this report have educational support programs ranging from scholarships to educational materials support and construction of school buildings. It is shown by the investment that the Group puts primary importance to developing human capital and has consciously invested in future generations through addressing SDG Goal 4.
SDG Goal 6 is 11% of the investments. This covers the goals that “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. The biggest contribution of the group is the management of the La Mesa Watershed which services the entire Metro Manila’s population of 28 million.
In making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe resilient and sustainable” as is the aim of SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, ABS-CBN Foundation’s Operation Sagip contributed immensely in ensuring that there is significant reduction of number of deaths during disaster and that its effect to the economic wellbeing of victims is reduced drastically specially for the most vulnerable sectors of society. Another major contribution of the Lopez Group in SDG 11 is in the area of strengthening and safeguarding the county’s cultural and natural heritage. Together with the Lopez Memorial Museum, the Orchestra of the Filipino Youth by the Ang Mission Inc, contributes to the “per capita spent on the preservation, protection and conservation of all cultural and natural heritage” as part of private funding and expenditure (SDG Goal 11.4.1).
Two more Goals that made significant impact to the 2018 CSR investment of the Lopez Group are Goals 15: Life on Land and Goal 3: Health and Wellness. For Goal 15, the major source of this comes from EDC’s BINHI: Tree for Food and Life Program. Tree for Life aims to “rehabilitate forests to avoid fragmentation of habitats through assisted natural regeneration or rain forestation farming” while Tree for Food aims to “rehabilitate degraded forests by engaging upland communities as partners through agroforestry and other sustainable forest practices”. For Goal 3, bulk of this investment comes from ABS-CBN’s Doc Ricky Pedia, (Pedia ng Barangay), “an ALKFI co-produced show with the objective to educate the mothers on proper nutrition and child care for their growing families. It highlights the importance of good health in the child’s first 1, 000 days”.
As in previous years, majority of the Groups investment is in the form of cash, although non-cash contribution has always been given value and included in the report. It is also worthy to note that airtime and putting value into volunteers initiatives is an ongoing process within the Lopez group.
In the interest of public disclosure, the Lopez Group has consistently included in the report the funds generated from external sources which are not part of the Lopez Group of Companies. These are funding donors and individuals who contributes to specific projects and activities of the various foundations under the Lopez group. These funds are managed and reported by the individual foundations to their specific donors. For the 2018 report, the external funds were accessed mainly by ALKFI, a bulk of which is for the La Mesa Project and humanitarian assistance, as well as Ang Misyon Inc as donations for performances and Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc.’s training programs for teachers and installation of KCFI’s satellite disks.
The total number direct beneficiaries and partners in various communities nationwide touched by the 2018 CSR programs, projects and activities of the Lopez Group is 36,624,653. That is almost a third of the population of the Philippines. The Lopez group remains committed to investing in the developing quality human capital and ensuring that future generations are indeed given a fair chance to live decent and productive lives and that indeed, as the SDG continuously advocate, no one is left behind.
