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Sun Life Financial, ABS-CBN turn over Legacy of Light
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
SUN LIFE Financial-Philippines Foundation and
ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. formally turned over the Legacy of Light Village, a socialized housing project for Metro Manila’s informal settlers, during simple rites on June 23.
The Legacy of Light Village was developed within the 110-hectare government relocation site in Barangay Santo Tomas through a P50-million donation from Sun Life Financial’s corporate social responsibility arm, the Sun Life Foundation.
Rizalina Mantaring, president and chief executive officer of the Sun Life Financial Group of Companies; Veronica Estrella, executive director of Sun Life Foundation, and ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. executive director Gina Lopez led the symbolic turnover of keys to the new homes of a total of 115 beneficiaries.
According to Mantaring, the beneficiaries represent the company’s 115 years of existence in the Philippines.
“This project is our way of giving back to the people and the communities,” she said and reiterated that Sun Life Financial will continue to pay forward through various projects to help communities.
Sun Life Financial, one of the country’s oldest life insurance companies, last year recorded a gross premium of P14 billion, besting all its competitors. Its net income last year was pegged at P3.0 billion.
According to Mantaring, the company is spending more than 1 percent of the company’s net income to various projects as part of its commitment to good corporate citizenship.
Incidentally, Lopez said the company’s humble beginnings could be traced to the Pasig River, noting that its first office was put up in Pasig City, also along the historic river 115 years ago.
The beneficiaries of the project, like other families who were relocated within the relocation site named BayaniJuan, came from the river banks of Pasig River after the devastation wrought by typhoon Ondoy.
Some of the 5,200 families are now permanent residents of BayaniJuan, says Girlie Aragon, its project manager for ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. Of the number, about 3,500 were rendered homeless by Ondoy, which flooded 90 percent of Metro Manila and other low-lying towns and cities in Luzon for weeks, while 1,700 families came from Estero de Paco in Pandacan, Manila, a tributary of Pasig River which was turned into a park as part of the clearing operation initiated jointly by the government and ABS-CBN Foundation’s Kapit-Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig.
The modest housing units, with a floor area of 30 sq m, costs around P137,000. It comes with potable water and electricity.
The BayaniJuan relocation site was developed in partnership with the National Housing Authority (NHA). It was designed to be a small but self-sustaining community.
Near the relocation site, there are three public elementary schools and one high school, a public market, a church and within the Legacy of Light Village is a children’s playground.
Lopez said an industrial park will soon rise within the relocation site, which will help provide jobs to people who have been relocated from various parts of Metro Manila.
“The industrial park is being worked out. We already have a list of five locators who committed to set up shop nearby,” she said.
According to Lopez, ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. will continue to provide seminars as part of a livelihood program for the project beneficiaries to encourage them to stay in their new homes.