Building up hope and resilience

MANILA, Philippines - "We Filipinos are more resilient now than we were in 2009, when Typhoon Ondoy struck. And we're more resilient now than in 2013 when we had three different crises - the Zamboanga siege, Bohol earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan," says Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF) president Rene "Butch" Meily, a day after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit Leyte this month.

While busy spearheading the organization's humanitarian efforts for the current problem in Marawi City, Meily and his team closely monitors climate-related and natural hazards in their prototype Emergency Operations Center at the Shell House in Makati City.

The permanent building is being set up in Clark, Pampanga, where companies can hold office in case of a major earthquake in Metro Manila.

 PDRF is the country's major private sector vehicle and coordinator for disaster management.

After Typhoon Ondoy, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo asked for a public-private partnership through an executive order and chose Manny V. Pangilinan to head it.

Now, PDRF is backed by the country's largest conglomerates, industry movers and top corporate leaders, co-chaired by MVP, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.

Meily shares, "Although we (companies) compete commercially, we're able to cooperate and work together around common problems. It gives people a sense of hope. Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and that's why we built this operation center."

 An organization ran by the private sector, PDRF is unique that the United Nations asked its help to replicate it in other countries around the world and build a network now called Connecting Business Initiative for UN.

In July last year, PLDT won the UPS International Disaster Relief Award at Business in the Community's 2016 Annual Responsible Business Gala in London.

Run by The Prince of Wales's charity Business in the Community, the award celebrates the innovative ways that businesses in the UK and abroad are making a sustained difference and transforming communities.

How hands-on is MVP?

"He gives the general guidance and co-chairs the board. He's very much informed of everything we do, like our initiative on Marawi, he personally approved the support of PLDT and Makati Medical Center for the medical mission," says Meily, who describes MVP as someone who lifts the level of the thinking of people in every meeting he attends.

He adds, "Once peace returns, we'll be trying to help small businesses: sari-sari stores, dressmakers, carinderias. We're going to help them rebuild their lives and businesses, as we did after Yolanda.

"As a colleague and as a boss, he is pretty visionary in terms of the businesses that he goes into, like going into hospitals. Nobody thought of going in there, but now he has built a whole group of different hospitals, I think about 10. He creates value where there's none by seeing things that others don't see."

Working with MVP reminds Meily that their job isn't done "until we make people's lives better here in the Philippines and we lift them up out of poverty."

He continues, "So, education is important to him. Sports is also important for him, but he has so many other goals in terms of disaster management or preparedness, and innovation. He has created wealth through the different companies that he owns, and his mandate to us is to invest in young companies so that they could also grow and create jobs and create wealth."

An innovation hub for millennials

It has been MVP's vision to set up an innovation hub for the country, thus the freshly launched QBO (pronounced koo-bo, derived from bahay kubo) which Meily also leads.

"We're competing with other countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Chile - to attract start-ups. Our goal is for the Philippine start-ups to rise up to global levels and become global companies. How did Google or Facebook start? They were started by young kids," he beams.

QBO hopes to replicate the experience so young Filipinos could see that they don't have to go abroad or go to big companies in order to earn good money or do well.

"They can start their own company and with that, they can build a huge one, and take it public with the stock exchange," Meily quips, adding that the organization proudly partners with the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Science and Technology, JP Morgan and IdeaSpace.

Like PDRF, QBO is neutral and puts the Philippines in the innovation map, not just in the region but also globally.