Wealth creation for low income households means spreading the reach of Bayan’s microfinancing program and disseminating its grassroots entrepreneurship and management courses to three million microentrepreneurs nation-wide. Job generation involves training the spouses, children and relatives of Bayan’s 60,000 women borrowers in technical skills that are highly employable. Family formation implies values strengthening and delivery of social services.
Bayan Academy harnesses two years of research work on designing curricula and developing learning materials that would address the education needs of micro and small enterprises, microfinance institutions and the formal education system at the high school, college and master’s levels. Many of these designs and materials were produced by teachers and trainors who underwent Bayan’s faculty and trainors development programs. The dream of Bayan Academy is to “democratize education and entrepreneurship” by partnering with schools, microfinance institutions, development agencies and government organizations who would adopt and disseminate the Bayan Education Systems and Technologies. Already, a dozen schools and over 100 microfinance and development institutions have availed of the services of Bayan Foundation.
The Roots of Philanthropy
The Lopez legacy of philanthropy traces its roots in the province-wide famine that struck Iloilo in the 1870’s. Eugenio Lopez and his brother, Claudio, witnessed the sad plight of the people, many of whom were their sugar workers in their vast tracks of sugar lands. The brothers organized a relief operation, distributing rice and money to the countless families who flocked to the Lopez homes. Eugenio, himself, sold an hacienda to fund the operation in order to save the people from hunger, disease and death.
Eugenio Lopez knew even then that philanthropy could not be a dole-out proposition. Quite liberal in his thinking, Eugenio spoke out against debt peonage to bring the people out of labor bondage, something that did not endear him much to the elite of those times. He went a step further and advocated to empower the people with knowledge. Eugenio established the first system of public instruction in Jaro, Iloilo. He pushed vigorously for “education of the peasants”. His wife went from house to house to convince parents to send their children to school.
This kind-heartedness of Eugenio appeared to have rub off on his family. During the height of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, a severe food shortage gripped Iloilo again as the conquerors commandeered most of the food supply. Ramon, a son of Eugenio, and his niece pushed a cart through the city streets to distribute rice and fish. Ramon’s niece sold some of her jewelry to raise funds for the relief effort.
Planting and Nurturing the Tree of Plenty
The Lopez family seems to have embraced the mantra “To whom much is given, much is expected”. For indeed, the family has been blest with plenty but not without the trials and hardships of a Job.
Born July 20, 1901, Eugenio was the eldest son of Basilio and Sabina Lopez. Basilio was an entrepreneur who transformed the Jaro-Molo district of Iloilo into one of the most prosperous in the country. He was cabeza de barangay, district leader and tax collector. In 1850, he was elected gobernadorcillo of Jaro. Basilio accumulated thousands of hectares of land and owned the first steam-powered sugar mill. He bequeathed his wealth to his ten surviving children.
Eugenio and his brother Fernando set up the E & F Lopez Inc. on June 12, 1928 as the umbrella organization to manage their inheritance. In the 1930s, the brothers pursued the strategy of gradually leaving the agricultural sector and entering industry. They ventured into the airline business (the precursor of PAL) and other transportation modes such as ships, buses and taxis. After World War II ravaged Iloilo, the brothers decided to establish their base in Manila. They increased their media investments by buying the Manila Chronicle in 1947. In 1956, they set up CBN broadcasting and bought ABS in 1957 to forge ABS-CBN. This signaled the brothers’ foray into high technology ventures.
The Lopezes, through their holding company Benpres, bought into Meralco in 1962, the first big company sold by the Americans following the country’s Filipinization program. Meralco embarked on many high technology ventures as it expanded its network of affiliates. To buy into Meralco, the Lopezes sold their sugar mills.
Unfortunately, the family’s print and broadcast companies were forcibly shut down with the declaration of martial law in 1972. Their Meralco holdings were, likewise, forcibly bought. Don Eugenio escaped arrest but his son, Eugenio Jr., was jailed on charges of conspiring to assassinate Marcos. These assets were returned only when the dictator was deposed in 1986.
Today, the Lopez tree of plenty is in full bloom with the addition of Manila Tollways Corporation, Bayantel, First Gen, Adtel and others. In fact, the entire Lopez business conglomerate is made up of seventeen corporations. However, this is complemented by nine operating foundations and one coordinating foundation to manage the philanthropic endeavors of the Lopez family.
The Fruits of Philanthropy
From the education of peasants, the Lopez shifted their focus to the education of leaders and managers. One of the biggest donations given by Don Eugenio during his lifetime was to the Asian Institute of Management in 1968. Two alma maters also received the Lopez largesse, the Ateneo de Manila and the UP College of Law. Don Eugenio also donated a priceless legacy of Filipiniana collections to the Lopez Memorial Museum for the use of scholars and the public.
For the Lopez family, however, charity begins with their own employees. Don Eugenio, himself, ensured that his employees and executives were the best paid in the land. He also built them a tertiary hospital, a sports complex and a world class cultural theater.
From 1968 onwards, nine corporate foundations were established by the Lopezes. These included the Don Eugenio Lopez Foundation (which funded AIM and the museum), ABS CBN Foundation, Meralco Millenium Foundation, Meralco Management and Leadership Development Center, First Philippine Conservation, Knowledge Channel, Phil-Asia assistance Foundation, Gabaldon Foundation and the ABS CBN Bayan Foundation. In 2004, a tenth foundation, the Lopez Group Foundation, was added to coordinate the work of the first nine foundations.
The Lopez family has expanded its range of activities on its mission of Corporate Social Responsibility. Aside from education and culture, the family has added the following: child care, health and family planning; poverty alleviation through microfinancing and grassroots entrepreneurhip; environment management and conservation; community development; and, disaster relief and rehabilitation work. Two major efforts are aimed at basic education for the masses. These are (1) the education media efforts of ABS CBN Foundation with its instructional materials on science, math, values and social studies, and (2) the Knowledge Channel which aims to provide curriculum support for basic education. Both are primarily aimed at public schools, following the tradition set by Don Eugenio.
The establishment of Bayan Academy, which has been made possible by the generous contribution of seven Lopez companies, brings the Lopez legacy back full circle. Bayan Academy’s priority constituency are the millions of poor Filipino families who struggle to feed and educate their children. Bayan Academy is committed to transform their hand-to-mouth livelihood pursuits into full-pledged micro and small enterprises through its microfinancing and grassroots entrepreneurship program. Bayan aims to go a step further by intervening in unproductive rural and urban industries which need technology, technical training and market assistance.
At the strategic level and with more long-lasting effects, the objective of Bayan Academy is to transform the entire Philippine education system, focusing on entrepreneurship and management for the masses by partnering with universities, colleges and high schools all over the country. This will be done through faculty capability building, curriculum design and material development.
Even as we speak, Bayan is conducting a two-week training to 40 teachers from seven different schools in Metro Manila. Cagayan Valley, Pampanga and Bicol. This will be followed by an offering for Visayan schools in Iloilo on April 21, and for Mindanao schools on May 5 in Cagayan de Oro. The Bicol run in Naga will be held simultaneously with the Mindanao offering. Bayan has already completed the training of over 100 trainors on Grassroots Entrepreneurship and Management or GEM. The entire high school teaching staff of Elizabeth Seton School will be trained for the whole month of May. The GEM course will, likewise, be offered to other high schools in Metro Manila, also in May.
The University of Makati and the Central Philippine University will be running the MBA course developed by Bayan this June. Several schools, notably the four Notre Dame schools, Capitol University and Xavier University in Mindanao, are hoping to do the same. The BS Entrepreneurship will be run at the Assumption College and the University of Makati for the coming schoolyear. The Far Eastern University, the University of Santo Tomas along with Ateneo de Naga and other schools, have expressed interest in this program. For high school, we have the Quezon City academy, Elizabeth Seton School, Assumpta High School and Montesssori de San Juan in the educational pipeline.
Meanwhile. GEM is being disseminated by Bayan’s partners who are engaged in microfinance. These include our original partner and course co-developer, the Center for Community Transformation, ASKI based in Central Luzon, TSKI based in Western Visayas, Bangko Kabayan based in Batangas, Punla sa Tao based in Laguna, Milamdec based in Northern Mindanao and the Notre Dame, with schools all over Mindanao. Bayan hopes to license thirty microfinance institutions with a combined outreach of over one million micro borrowers in 2008.
The biggest partner of Bayan in Technical and Livelihood Courses for communities is TESDA. Today, Bayan and Tesda are entering into an agreement to deliver Fifty Million Pesos worth of education vouchers for the skilling of the spouses, children and relatives of Bayan communities. We have conducted training courses on welding and call center services with a very high placement rate here and abroad. Some of our trainees are able to find very good jobs even before the training is over.
On the culinary arts for the masses, Bayan is signing an agreement with Lyceum to provide us the technical courses and TESDA-accredited trainors to promote culinary entrepreneurship. We are inviting the famous baker, Heny Sison, to help us in the baking department to complete our course offerings. In order to reach our distant communities, Ai Hu Foundation has donated a fully-outfitted Entrep Bus that will raise the standards of microentrepreneurs engaged in food carts, kiosks, carinderias and canteens.
Towards a New CSR
In his speech before the Institute of Corporate Directors, Oscar Lopez, the chairman of the Lopez Group Foundation, points to their new direction “towards applying the business talents and resources of our different companies in addressing specific issues of CSR while demonstrating that these are part of the business strategies and makes good business sense.” The ABS CBN Bayan Foundation adheres to this philosophy and excels in its dual role as a social development institution and as a microfinancing enterprise. The latter provides sustainability to the former. With the launching of Bayan Academy, the social mission of democratizing education will by and of itself be a sustainable education enterprise that will make our microfinancing business an even more viable one. In pushing its development agenda, Bayan Foundation wholeheartedly believes in the quadruple bottom lines of (1) generating operating surpluses for financial sustainability, (2) creating a positive impact on the lives of our communities, (3) improving the living standards of our own Bayan work force, and (4) ensuring the quality of our environment. resources.
It is Bayan’s unyielding passion to be the best managed social and enterprise development institution in the world. The rest we will leave entirely up to God. |
