MNTC bags 2013 Asian CSR Award

Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC), builder and concessionaire of the 90-km NLEX, won in the Product Responsibility & Consumer Rights category of the 2013 Asian CSR Awards for its CSR program, “NLEX Customer Equity and Road Safety.”

MNTC President and CEO Rodrigo Franco received the award last September 24 during the gala dinner of the 12th Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

There were entries from 39 companies from 13 countries that vied in four categories. The Asian CSR Awards program of the Asian Institute of Management-Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Center for Corporate Social Responsibility (AIM RVR CSR Center) recognizes Asian companies for realizing the principles of corporate responsibility in their business philosophy and operations.

“NLEX Customer Equity and Road Safety” is a program launched by the MNTC in April 2005, merging its CSR program with its core business. The program aims to promote customer equity, in which the company respects customers’ rights and considers them as key stakeholders in the organization, and to maintain roadway quality to assure safety.

“MNTC places a premium on customer equity and road safety. Safety and convenience are embedded in their operations, beginning with the design of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). Their program includes consultations with the community, roadside service including free communication, an avenue for customer complaints, and regular monitoring,” an AIM release said.

“We’ve made sure that the NLEX maintains its durability, reliability and integrity as a structure. That’s our guarantee of the highest standard of safety for our customers,” Franco said in his acceptance speech. “We’ve made it our business to listen to all our stakeholders, especially our customers, because we respect their right to be heard, their desire to see their suggestions implemented and their demands met. That’s our sacred duty to our customers, whose wish, as the saying goes, ’is our command’.”

The other categories and winners are: Environment and Value Chain Management – Smart Communications, Inc. (Philippines); Governance and Society – Ultratech Cement Limited (India), Labor and Employee Management – Magsaysay Maritime Corporation (Philippines). The grand prize, Intel-AIM Corporate Responsibility Award, went to PT Unilever Indonesia.

Francisco Roman Jr., executive director of AIM RVR CSR Center, said, “It is the center’s belief that CSR can only be truly sustainable when it is integrated into the company’s business model and is regarded as fundamental to strategy…The awardees continuously innovate and implement sustainable approaches toward becoming socially responsible.”

“We happily note that this is a clear and unequivocal affirmation that what we at MNTC are doing is right,” Franco said. “Every passing day, you will expect us to live principles and virtues of our program. It is a daily challenge we hereby accept.”