ILOILO City – The city government stands to benefit from the help of tycoon Dr. Andrew L. Tan’s Alliance Global, Inc. (AGI) that will extend a multimillion-peso grant for initiatives to make the metropolis resilient.
“We would like to thank Dr. Tan. This is a big help towards future-proofing the city and making it sustainable,” said Mayor Jerry Treñas.
AGI will provide a one-time funding support of P8 million for the implementation of programs as agreed by partners.
The three-year endeavor runs from Sept. 1, 2019 to Aug. 30, 2022.
Treñas signed a memorandum of understanding with National Resilience Council (NRC) represented by Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga; the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development, Inc., represented by its chairman and president Roberto R. Romulo; and AGI represented by its CEO and vice chairman Kevin Andrew L. Tan, for the “Adopt-A-City” Initiative, at the Tower Club, Makati City on Aug. 29.
AGI’s real estate arm Megaworld Corp. is developing and expanding the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park township in Mandurriao district.
It is one of the country’s largest conglomerates with interests in real estate development, food and beverage industry, and quick service restaurants.
NRC, in partnership with AGI and the city government, will host and facilitate meetings among partners.
It shall provide technical support as needed in the program planning, implementation and evaluation.
The city government shall also provide, as needed, financial and logistical counterpart.
Iloilo City will strengthen the implementation of Resilient Local Government Unit Program in close collaboration with NRC and AGI.
The objectives are:
1. to strengthen leadership and governance capacities of the local government unit (LGU) to achieve human, economic, infrastructure, and environment resilience through private sector participation
2. to mainstream disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation (CCA) and resilience goals into investments, core business value cycles and strategic corporate social responsibility of private sector;
3. to facilitate active and strategic engagement of private sector partner with the LGU based on its needs
4. to advance the attainment of international commitments and agreements such as Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals, and Paris Climate Agreement; as well as, various national programs such as the Philippine Development Plan and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan; and
5. to complement NRC’s other programs.
AGI recognizes the need to ensure that it and its various stakeholders and partners will be able to prevent and prepare for, and quickly recover from, the detrimental effects of disastrous events or unforeseen circumstances.
NRC is a private sector program that seeks to pursue a collective endeavor that will strengthen the dynamic collaboration between the public and private sectors in advancing science-based solutions to the multiple challenges of disaster resilience as it engages leaders in government, the private sector, scientific organizations and academic community in aligning disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation initiatives that will ensure resilient development across different sectors and scales./PN
