BIZ BUZZ: Bigger cleanup campaign
Almost a million metric tons of silt and solid waste. To be exact, 806,084. That’s how much material has been removed by San Miguel Corp. from the Pasig River and the Tullahan-Tinajeros River system since the conglomerate began its multibillion peso cleanup drive last year.
According to the company, its P2-billion cleanup of the Pasig River—the main waterway that bisects Metro Manila—has so far yielded 165,700 MT of solid waste, which aggravates the flooding that the country’s capital experiences annually during the rainy season.
Meanwhile, another 640,384 MT of the same waste material have been cleared from the Tullahan-Tinajeros waterways, which also causes flooding in their areas annually.
With that positive development, San Miguel said that it has now extended its cleanup drive to Calatagan and Balayan in Batangas, alongside preparations to begin another cleanup activity in the “heavily polluted” Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river system in Bulacan.
The company said that an initial 1,340 bags full of garbage were collected from the coastal areas of the two towns during the five-day cleanup effort organized by San Miguel and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Worker program of the Department of Labor and Employment.
Apart from mobilizing volunteers, San Miguel also provided cleaning supplies, protective gear and food for the participants. At the same time, the company is raising awareness among coastal communities about proper waste disposal.
San Miguel has also committed to help set up a materials recovery facility for five barangays in Calatagan to recover recyclable materials and significantly reduce the amount of waste that end up in the waterways of the province.
San Miguel head honcho Ramon Ang said that coastal cleanup activities in Batangas will be done on a weekly basis and with greater urgency as the Batangas waters are close to the Verde Island Passage, a strait between Luzon and Mindoro that is known for its rich marine biodiversity.
At the same time, the conglomerate holds weekly cleanup activities in Isla Pulo in Navotas, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The place is home to the Tanza Marine Tree Park, a 26-hectare mangrove strip of an island with a 3.5-kilometer shoreline, which also serves as a natural barrier that protects nearby cities from storm surges and coastline erosion.
Now that’s an advocacy that the metropolis badly needs.
—Daxim L. Lucas
Shake-up and startup
Television broadcast giant GMA Network Inc. seems poised to shake things up outside its core business through GMA Ventures.
The owners have announced their intention to spend up to P1 billion and acquire startups that will allow GMA to earn “considerable” profits with “not too much risk,” according to chair and CEO Felipe Gozon.
It is, of course, the wish of every business to attain those goals. To achieve this, GMA Ventures has assembled an executive team with Gozon as chair and CEO, Gilberto Duavit Jr. as vice chair and Regie Bautista as president and chief operating officer.
Felipe Yalong will be treasurer of GMA Ventures, Joel Jimenez as board director, Anna Teresa Gozon-Valdes as corporate secretary and Lizelle Maralag as chief compliance officer.
We know what you’re thinking: it doesn’t look like much of a shake-up with what appears like the same group of folks running GMA Network.
It’s true that special skills are required in startup investing. It’s a space renown for its high risk, intensive capital spending and that high chance of failure—but with important lifelong lessons and all that.
We’re told GMA’s owners have their reasons for limiting the executive team to familiar but competent faces in the early stages of GMA Ventures. It’s still early days but we expect the company will eventually go further—not just in search of profits but in terms of its management bench.
